Effective Parenting Skills - Do Today's Kids See Life as One Big Commercial?

It still often true today that television is a "babysitter" for adult caregivers and preschoolers, or even infants. Too often, when people are bored or want to rest, they watch TV. This is true even if programming is not particularly interesting to them. They may even need the TV to help them go to sleep. If you turn it off, oftentimes, these people wake up.

Today's myriad of channels and access to the remote control makes television an engrossing experience. It can be easy to confuse which characters go with which plot. When you switch channels rapidly during commercial breaks, you can follow several shows at the same time. However, it's probably prudent to stop this at least occasionally and choose one program, then stick to it.

Children are as guilty of this as adults, perhaps more, because their attention spans aren't quite as long as adults' are. This also often happens because children are much more prone to imitate what adults in authority do rather than what adults say, especially parents. Therefore, if you are a champion channel surfer, then your child is likely to be too. So if you find your child saying, as you try to grab the remote control from his or her hand, "But, Dad, it's a commercial!", take a long look at your own behavior before you do any scolding. If you find yourself doing this behavior, then curtail your own channel surfing in order to control that of your child.

When it comes to what to watch on television, again, there are a myriad of programs to choose from. You can choose just about anything: there are channels devoted to sports, cartoons, foreign language shows, soap operas or game shows, for example. You can also choose from movie channels that include every different type of movie. Parental controls can help parents choose just what content their children watch, even without their supervision.