It's estimated that the average child will watch 18,000 hours of television before their high school graduation.
Sure some kids have very limited or no television access but others have televisions in their bedrooms (like my friends one year old!).
If you child watches any television at all, here are four things to look for which can contribute to their behavior and temper tantrums.
1.
Violence- This is probably the easiest thing to detect in television programs and often times just by hearing the name of the program you can take a guess as to whether or not it will include violence.
Limit the amount that your child watches because even the most even keeled kids will be influenced by watching violent programs.
I remember that we always knew when my brother had secretly watched a certain action figure cartoon because the way he would behave- jumping up on furniture, practicing his power kicks on my sister and I.
2.
Language- It's amazing how kids pick up on language, especially bad language.
When I taught English in China, my high schoolers couldn't make a complete sentence but they could use every four letter word correctly! My parents were pretty strict about which words were not allowed and when we picked up some words that they deemed inappropriate for us, we were not allowed to watch a particular television show for awhile.
Teach your child which words will not be acceptable in your home and enforce it.
3.
Disrespect- This is another one that sneaks into your child's behavior.
I remember watching a sitcom as a child and thinking it was a pretty good, wholesome family show.
My parents did not.
They were able to see the subtle disrespect of the children towards the parents.
4.
Advertisements- While most people would say that the commercials provide the only advertisements, look at almost any show, cartoon or movie made these days and you can find a few products being used which are there solely for advertisement purposes.
Seeing so many advertisement may lead children to feel entitled to all the things that the teen movie stars have or at the least they will become greedy and beg for the latest and greatest toy that hits the market.
If you think that any of these might be contributing to your child's misbehavior try limiting television time to no more than 30 minutes a day.
You may even consider going without television during the week so that there is more time to read, study and have time together as a family.
With my two-year old we limit television to just half an hour of news which is on in the background as we have our family dinner.
While it's not the most ideal situation it's what works for our family now.