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| Some parents limit their children's screen time to encourage more engagement with the world around them. (Paul Bradbury / Caia Image) |
by Nara Schoenberg, Contact Reporter, Chicago Tribune, 27 October 2015
For Katie Silberman, the turning point came when a house painter accidentally ripped out the TV cables.
Silberman and her husband, never big TV fans, had fallen into the habit of letting their sons, Lincoln, then 7, and Haven, 4, watch television. Now, with the electronic box quiet at last, they saw a chance for a fresh start. They told the kids they were going to go outside, play more and try new things.
"We literally put the TV on the curb, and that was it," says Silberman, 44, of Providence, R.I. "We didn't want it anymore. It wasn't this great moral epiphany. It just went off, and we were like, 'God! This is super-nice.'"
Some parents of low-tech kids reach tipping points; others start their children on the screen-free diet recommended for kids under 2 (endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics) and see no reason to add lots of shows, apps and games to the menu. Some prohibit all TV, video games and nonacademic computer use on weekdays, but allow a few hours of screen time on weekends. One father told the Tribune that he and his wife allow some screen time during the icy Michigan winters but ban it almost entirely during the summer.
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Silberman and her husband, never big TV fans, had fallen into the habit of letting their sons, Lincoln, then 7, and Haven, 4, watch television. Now, with the electronic box quiet at last, they saw a chance for a fresh start. They told the kids they were going to go outside, play more and try new things.
"We literally put the TV on the curb, and that was it," says Silberman, 44, of Providence, R.I. "We didn't want it anymore. It wasn't this great moral epiphany. It just went off, and we were like, 'God! This is super-nice.'"
Some parents of low-tech kids reach tipping points; others start their children on the screen-free diet recommended for kids under 2 (endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics) and see no reason to add lots of shows, apps and games to the menu. Some prohibit all TV, video games and nonacademic computer use on weekdays, but allow a few hours of screen time on weekends. One father told the Tribune that he and his wife allow some screen time during the icy Michigan winters but ban it almost entirely during the summer.