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If used with discretion, television can be a positive influence and a valuable parenting tool to rely upon when raising children.

Time spent and content viewed must be monitored and geared to the age of the child. If parents oversee what their child is watching to ensure the quality of programing, television often provides learning opportunities and desireable role models for a child.

Here are a few of the advantages of television:

* Like books, television can expand a child's experience far beyond the parameters of his/her own family and community. Good examples of quality educational viewing are the discovery channel and the travel channel.

* Some of the children's channels, like Disney and Nickelodeon, are adept at weaving educational opportunities into their entertainment programing.

* Children's programming displays diverse groups of children from various ethnic backgrounds and teaches our children to be all-inclusive and view differences as a positive. Children's television is also less apt to display gender bias and child viewers have the opportunity to absorb lessons about equality.

* Preschool children's shows are beginning to address the epidemic of obesity in our society by incorporating exercise into their programs. This is responsible television at it's best.

* Television can be a great resource to foster family togetherness. The Hallmark channel features movies the family can watch together. PBS and the history channel are informative, educational and entertaining.

* Watching television together as a family can motivate conversation, debate, and the instilling of values through discussion. Many important life lessons can be learned by incorportating conversation about the content into television viewing.

There is a downside to children watching television. Too much is harmful. Television is not the babysitter. The parent must be vigilant at all times and diligently monitor even the cartoon channels for sometimes violent content creeps in. Parental discretion is always advised.

Parents will also want to monitor the commercials featured with their child's favorite programs. Sometimes the program is quality, but the inappropriate commercials negate the positive aspects.

We can voice our displeasure with questionable programming by sending a message to specific show producers, corporate sponsors, or simply by refusing to watch programs with inappropriate content. We do not have to capitulate to poor judgement on the part of writers and sponsors of

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