by Renee Kenworthy

Created on: August 21, 2007

Too many parents have waited until they are older to have children, looking for security in material grounds, understandably to create a better environment for their children. Including the use of every technological gadget known to them and their children. Television in bedrooms, in longe rooms, in kitchens. They seem to have forgotten what it was to be a child. What it is to have an imagination. Parental control over television not only relates to a child's viewing but also their viewing hours. It enables the parent to have some input into what their children are taught when, like all children, they are absorbing every piece of information around them. Just as you would not let a complete stranger raise your children, guarding against what they watch helps teach them what is acceptable to your household in terms of behavior, and education. Turning the television off means that you as a parent have to acknowledge your child, talk to them, and spend time with them, entertaining them, and teaching them the personal skills they will need to maintain healthy relationships later on in their adult life. It helps to teach them the value of time when their viewing is limited to an hour a day. They have more energy, more zest for life. They create the stories and self entertaining ideas that will help them to create a better world for tomorrow. A hundred years ago when there were no televisions in the household, the imaginings of a child created the first of many of our technologies we enjoy today. Now that we have stalemated on television and computers, our children have no imaginations of what to create for tomorrow. The benefits of an imagination can force a child to exercise without them being aware that that is what they are doing. The thrill of a game made up as you go along, running to and fro, frolicking in a puddle, sliding up and down a grass hill on a piece of cardboard, all the things that burn off that pent up restlessness of being a child can help to clear their minds and wind them down for the end of the day, and every parents dream, bedtime! A child enjoys his or her non TV time, but will do so more actively if a parent can take time out to enjoy it with them, a simple wrestle or rumble on the lounge floor, a game of tag, backyard footy, or dress up's, all help bond a family together over laughter of having a good time, not watching someone else's. Parental control over television is a necessity to teach your children to create their life not compare it to others and what they don't have, as so many kids are now becoming attached to. The void created needs to be filled by something and with the use of knowledge gained from endless hours of television, its easy to replace it with what they have been taught from TV. Parental controls need to extend further then what they watch, but how much they watch. So turn it off, get them up off the floor and outside. The earlier you start the easier it will be. And hopefully your children will sleep as soundly as mine.

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