OLD AGE IS NOT FOR SISSIES

NOTHING IN LIFE IS TO BE FEARED

  • Home
  • About
  • Book Table
    • How to Write a Family History Book
    • Palmetto Pioneers
  • Family Life
    • Home and Garden
  • Travel
  • Genealogy
  • Health
    • Aches & Pains
    • Nutrition & Diet
  • It’s Not For Sissies
    • Electronics & Technology
    • Opinion
  • Style & Beauty
    • Beauty
    • Style
  • Movie & TV Reviews
    • Movies
    • TV
  • Following Old Trails
    • Great Florida Cattle Drive 2016

Life is a Rough Draft–We Don’t Get to do it Over

July 30, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Electronics & Technology, Family Life

I just read an interesting article in the New York Times entitled “Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children” by Jane E. Brody.  You can read it here.

  
Photo Found On Pixabay

I had no idea that they were now giving guidelines for the amount of time children should be allowed to watch any electronic media, including television, hand held devices, video games or computers of any kind.  Below is a paragraph from the article.

“Before age 2 children should not be exposed to any electronic media, the pediatrics academy maintains, because “a child’s brain develops rapidly during these first years, and young children learn best by interacting with people, not screens.” Older children and teenagers should spend no more than one or two hours a day with entertainment media, preferably with high-quality content, and spend more free time playing outdoors, reading, doing hobbies and “using their imaginations in free play,” the academy recommends.”

I remember when we decided that our girls needed to watch less television, but with both of us working it was almost impossible to regulate their TV use.   One of the girls was having trouble in school, and we noticed that she watched television nonstop, like a zombie.  Her attention span was very short.

So I was especially appreciative when Chuck found something called Time Slot. It was a little machine that sat on top of the television that used a credit card system to regulate television time for each child.  He heard about it on public radio, and I believe we bought it through the North Carolina Public Television System.   You can read an old newspaper article about it here.

For a little over a year the girls were allotted one hour of television a day that they could use anytime they wanted. In other words they could accumulate their hours and watch an entire movie after several days.  Chuck and I both had a parent card each, which had unlimited time of television use.  They would ask for the parent card when their friends come over, when they wanted to watch a movie with them.  As long as this didn’t happen too often it was not a problem.

The system worked well; although there were funny moments.  For example the first time Jamie had friends over to watch TV, she forgot how much time she had on her card.  All of a sudden during the movie her card ran out,  and the television turned off.  She said the boys in the room said, “What happened to your TV?”  She yelled upstairs, “Mom!”  I came down with the parent card and fixed the problem, but there were lots of questions from her friends.  Jamie was so embarrassed.

For over a year Time Slot worked like a charm, until their brother Jeff came home from college one holiday and showed them how to secretly bypass the machine.  I guess he thought they were old enough by then to watch as much television as they wanted.

After that, they were careful not to let us know how much television they were watching. For a while we didn’t realize that they knew how to bypass it.  All in all though there was still the advantage of them watching less television, because they didn’t want to get caught.

Now it seems like my grandchildren are watching some type of media non-stop.  We’ve mentioned it from time to time to each of their parents, but I get the feeling they just think we’re outdated.

All I know is this.  These are precious little lives, and life is simply a rough draft.  None of us get to do it over–not the parents or the children.

Related

Subscribe To My Blog via Email

This is an invitation to come and play. Please join me as I travel the world, write a book, do genealogy, garden, take photos, and try my best to be a present wife, mother, and grandmother.

I try once a week to provide an update with insights and images. But don't hold me to the weekly updates, because life does get in the way. After all, I am retired.

So why are you waiting?

Go ahead! Subscribe! Enter Your Email Here!

Join Me on Facebook

Join Me on Facebook

Current Posts

What is a Podcast?

How to do a solar eclipse!

Echo Dot

My Life with Alexa

Wikipedia

You are losing us out here!

LINK TO MY RSS FEED

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG VIA EMAIL. IT'S FREE!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Copyright © 2023 · Swank WordPress Theme By, PDCD