June 24, 2014

Media and Your Teen -- Ask them to DECIDE

Kate Land, MD FAAP

The American Academy of Pediatrics has clear words for parents seeking advice about screen time limits for children. No screen time for kids under 2 and no more that 2 hours a day for kids over 2. Less is better and content matters.

While I find these guidelines challenging in my office and in my home, my mother would have had no trouble enforcing these guidelines with me - for most of my childhood we did not have a television. I remember mornings in junior high school as being rough. Not only because it was too early and too cold to want to get out of bed but also because once I made it to school everyone around me was discussing last night's episode of this or that show. I tried to look casual and preoccupied while they sounded so.... cool.

As a Pediatrician, I understand the social power that being up-to-date with the latest show, game or video has. Being connected on each of the latest social media tools be they Instagram, Vine or Snapchat, matters on today's Monday mornings.

However, I want my teens and my teen patients to turn off their screens more. I know that doing so will broaden their horizons and shrink their waistlines. They also on some level, get this. It isn’t easy to translate advice and understanding into action. Teens especially do not like to accept rules made for them without their input and buy-in. At my house, I always begin change with a discussion around the dinner table. It is a perfect chance to ask and listen. 

It is perhaps ironic that I found some words to inspire teens to turn off their screens from a recent episode of Grey's Anatomy. They have just the right touch of inspirational simplicity that appeals to the Pinterest set:

Decide.
We are all going to die. We don't get to decide where or when.
But we do get to decide how we are going to live. So do it.
Decide.
Is this the life you want to live? Is this the person you want to love?
Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger, kinder, more compassionate?
Decide.
Breathe in, breathe out and decide.

When you put it this way, few kids would choose to spend their time in front of a screen and definitely not the average of seven hours a day that our kids are currently spending. Tonight at dinner, ask your kids to decide. Then take action and come up with a plan together for media use in your home.
For ideas about how to decrease your family's media use see “How to Make a Family Media Use Plan” at the AAP’s parent web page healthychildren.org.