Is Your Tween Spending Too Much Time Online? Conduct Your Own Study
January 27, 2010 by christine.duval
Filed under In the News, Just for Moms, New, Tween Parenting Advice
A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation study shows the average kid between the ages of 8 and 18 spends 7.5 hours a day online. Struck by the numbers, I decided to conduct my own “study” to see just how much time my tween daughter spends in front of a screen — – be it a computer, Ipod or TV on a typical weekend day.
Do Tweens Spend Too Much Time Online?
8:30 am – 10am: Woke up, came downstairs and turned on the TV. Watched The Suite Life of Zach and Cody On Demand followed by Tru Jackson On Demand, followed by iCarly On Demand while eating French toast sticks.
10am – 12pm: With television still on, pulls the laptop out and begins emailing friends, checking her Kidzui account, culminating in a game of Wizard 101 for an hour.
12 – 1pm: Finally (with much coaxing from Mom) leaves the couch, gets out of PJ’s, makes bed.
1pm -1:30pm: Pokes around the house, has lunch.
1:30 – 3:00pm: Plays with little brother.
3:00 – 5:00pm: Turns television on again and grabs laptop. Interactively plays Club Penguin with her brother who is on the other computer while also watching Disney Channel.
5:00pm – 6:00pm: Plays Wii Fitness (at least now she’s off the couch).
6:00pm – 6:30pm: Has dinner with family.
6:30pm – 8:00pm: Watches iCarly and Tru Jackson.
8:00pm – 8:45pm: Goes up to bed, changes and reads a book.
In the 12 ½ hours my daughter was awake, she was online in one form or another for 8 hours! That’s six hours longer than what is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and five hours more than I feel good about. Next weekend I’m pulling out the kitchen timer and setting some limits!
This is always tricky, you have an idle weekend without much going on and the weather stinks. If it is my house, we have stuff to get done, cleaning, bills to pay etc., so it is easy to let the kids slide into an electronics coma. I think that I try to follow the advice that a pediatrician once gave me about nutrition. It is great to strive for perfect nutrition everyday, but realistically that isn’t going to happen. There will be days that your kids eat mostly junk or don’t eat enough vegetables, but try and look at the overall picture of how and what they eat. Set limits when you can and other times it is okay to let things slide. I try to think the same thing about media/screen time. There are a lot of days during the week that my kids don’t go near the tv/Wii/computer. They are just too busy with other stuff. But then there are those cold/very hot/snowy/rainy days where we’ve done the other stuff – played games, read books, hung out, made cookies or we are all just tired of each other and need a break! ( I was raised on a strict diet of the Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, Love Boat and weekend cartoons!) That’s when their screen time goes up! I think it is all about balance over the long term. (I say this as our daughters are online chatting together!)