What Time Is Wise For Your Children To Watch Television?

What time is wise for your children to watch television? Find out below how to evaluate the shows your kids watch and their reactions to the content.

Some parents have turned to electronic devices as the first choice to entertain their children. If you have wondered how many hours a day are adequate for your children to watch television, in the following lines we give you the answer. We even tell you the types of programs recommended for the little ones.

To better manage the daily hours of television suitable for your children, you can use a clock or a stopwatch. When your little ones want to watch their favorite show, start a timer that stops at 60 or 120 minutes.

How to know what time is prudent for your children to watch television?

According to different doctors and psychologists, a child over three years of age can only watch two hours of television a day, just like older people, as this information from the Spanish Heart Foundation points out.

On the contrary, if the two hours a day of television are exceeded, problems may appear in the child such as alterations in the sleep pattern, problems with school learning or delays in language development.

The hours of entertainment in front of a television will depend on the age and living conditions of your child. However, excess time also affects everyone, but in different ways.

What kinds of shows should your kids watch?

The television programs that are currently available for the smallest of the house are different. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the content of your children’s favorite program and if they acquire good lessons with it.

For many years, Sesame Street was listed as one of the most influential programs in children’s learning. The characters taught basic learning for the child audience, such as the alphabet, numbers and colors.

However, different studies, such as this one carried out by professionals from the Cordillera Technological Institute, Ecuador, have shown that if one of the parents accompanies their child while watching this program, and in turn explains what is happening, it will improve the way they the one that the child understands the information.

Carry out artistic or sports activities to replace television

You can change the habits so that your children do not watch television so much. To do this, you can guide them towards  artistic or sports activities ; Of course, first you must know the activities that they prefer to do or that they like.

There are many options for your children to do physical activities . You can choose different sports or cultural centers. In addition, some schools offer these activities after school.

If children do their favorite activity, they will be happy and will not miss television, and these types of activities will create new personal relationships and help foster their social development.

Some behaviors that indicate something is wrong

Many parents watch their children with concern when they develop symptoms such as the following:

• Sleep pattern disorders.
• Idealized vision of real life.
• Delays in language development.
• Violent behaviors.

In these cases, it is advisable to  know how many hours of television a day are adequate for children. In this sense, some of the symptoms that should be taken into account are the following:

1. They imitate violent actions that they see on television

Many shows broadcast at night tend to show violent content; content that your child may not contextualize in the best way. Blocking these channels at these times can help prevent your little one from watching violent content .

2. They don’t do homework or school work.

The television can so distract the little ones in the house that it can make them forget their tasks. To avoid this, many parents give their children permission to watch their favorite television shows when they finish their homework or schoolwork.

3. They stop eating or sleeping just to watch TV.

Nobody likes to miss the most important part of their favorite series, but that shouldn’t affect meal times and sleep times. To achieve this, the best thing for your children is to create a schedule for them to eat as a family, watch television and sleep.

Regarding the correct time for your children to watch television …

Ultimately, we all want to be great parents and take care of our personal affairs, but sometimes striking a balance takes time. If you let your children watch television too long, some consequences will appear like the ones we just explained.

For this reason, the most advisable thing is, from a very early age, to create good habits, comply with the necessary hours of sleep in each evolutionary stage and the schedules at mealtime so that the little ones grow up with healthy television routines.