An article in today’s Vancouver Sun caught our attention this morning.  Study ties TV to premature puberty, autism describes more of the damaging effects that excessive television viewing can have, especially on young people.

We limit TV time in our house. In fact, we don’t have cable, we’re not hooked up to the antenna that was previously on top of our house, we don’t even have rabbit ears.

We basically get no TV reception.

Our single TV is in the basement.  It’s old and dying – everybody is at least 6 inches shorter on our TV because the middle is somehow overlapping or something.  We have a VCR and a DVD player, but they are not on every day.  We screen what our kiddos watch, and we only let them watch a maximum of 1 ‘long’ video or 2 ‘short’ videos a day (and like I said, it’s not every day, either).

I have to admit that there are days when I wonder if it wouldn’t just be easier to do what my mom did sometimes – turn on Gilligan’s Island, Scooby Doo, The Flinstones, etc., and just let us watch all morning (or afternoon…).  We got up early to watch Tiger Sharks and He-Man (yes, I know I’m dating myself – stay with me…) and it didn’t matter as long as our bags were packed and we were dressed for school.  We even ate breakfast in front of the TV.  And I didn’t come out TOO bad, I think.

But I’m really not comfortable with using the TV as a babysitter.  We also choose our baby sitters from a small group of trusted people.  Those who occupy our children’s time need to share our values and respect the guidelines we have in place in our home.  TV doesn’t tend to do that…

Yes, there are lots of educational shows out there, but even those you have to scope out.  Cartoons aren’t very innocent anymore.  The way siblings treat each other in some children’s television programs is just horrid.  And even the way friends talk to each other, or about other characters in the show, is inappropriate and crude.  The relationships usually reflect un-Biblical values and the shows themselves promote an “Entertain ME” attitude with our children.

We’ve all heard about obese children who sit in front of the tube all day, or children who have poor eyesight, or children with non-existent social skills, etc.  This article in The Vancouver Sun goes a step further than previous reports regarding the issues with television viewing.  There actually may be a more serious issue than any of those things.  If television viewing does in fact disrupt or cause dysfunction with our hormone production, as the article suggests, there could be potentially HUGE implications.

It (the study cited in the article) found that watching television inhibits the production of the hormone melatonin, which affects the immune system, sleep cycle and the onset of puberty.

Because of my personal history with health problems, the issue mentioned that interests me in particular is the possibility of early onset of puberty.  A large percentage of women with endometriosis experience the early onset of puberty. Certainly early puberty is not the cause of endometriosis (usually abbreviated “endo”), but it can be an indicator for future health issues.  Some 89 million women worldwide have endo, according to the Endometriosis Association.  Endo is a chronic, often painful hormonal and immune disease that affects girls as young as 8-yrs-old and women in their reproductive years and beyond.  It can be debilitating because of pain, internal bleeding and many other medical problems.

In our home, I know that my daughter may be predisposed to developing endo, and I want to do everything I can to help her possibly avoid that.  I do not wish for her to have to endure even a fraction of what I have had to go through.  According to the Endometriosis Association, among the things that are known to help promote health and decrease the risk of endo are:

• manage allergies and asthma (both of which my daughter already has)
• use purified water (which we do)
• reduce toxic exposures  (which we are learning more and more how to do)
• delay puberty

Since we are already taking many precautions with my own health and that of my daughter, this Sun article really got my attenton.  It was another affirmation for me as to why I should continue to limit “Screen Time” (which is what we call both TV and computer usage).

To further protect my daughter’s health, we will continue to be diligent in avoiding excessive television viewing.  It is a good reminder on those rougher days when I want to stick a video in and retreat ALL DAY! Nope, not gonna do it! If all the other reasons to limit “Screen Time” were not enough, we just added another one!

original post: Affirming Limits on TV Time

An article in today’s Vancouver Sun caught our attention this morning.  Study ties TV to premature puberty, autism describes more of the damaging effects that excessive television viewing can have, especially on young people.

We limit TV time in our house. In fact, we don’t have cable, we’re not hooked up to the antenna that was previously on top of our house, we don’t even have rabbit ears.

We basically get no TV reception.

Our single TV is in the basement.  It’s old and dying – everybody is at least 6 inches shorter on our TV because the middle is somehow overlapping or something.  We have a VCR and a DVD player, but they are not on every day.  We screen what our kiddos watch, and we only let them watch a maximum of 1 ‘long’ video or 2 ‘short’ videos a day (and like I said, it’s not every day, either).

I have to admit that there are days when I wonder if it wouldn’t just be easier to do what my mom did sometimes – turn on Gilligan’s Island, Scooby Doo, The Flinstones, etc., and just let us watch all morning (or afternoon…).  We got up early to watch Tiger Sharks and He-Man (yes, I know I’m dating myself – stay with me…) and it didn’t matter as long as our bags were packed and we were dressed for school.  We even ate breakfast in front of the TV.  And I didn’t come out TOO bad, I think.

But I’m really not comfortable with using the TV as a babysitter.  We also choose our baby sitters from a small group of trusted people.  Those who occupy our children’s time need to share our values and respect the guidelines we have in place in our home.  TV doesn’t tend to do that…

Yes, there are lots of educational shows out there, but even those you have to scope out.  Cartoons aren’t very innocent anymore.  The way siblings treat each other in some children’s television programs is just horrid.  And even the way friends talk to each other, or about other characters in the show, is inappropriate and crude.  The relationships usually reflect un-Biblical values and the shows themselves promote an “Entertain ME” attitude with our children.

We’ve all heard about obese children who sit in front of the tube all day, or children who have poor eyesight, or children with non-existent social skills, etc.  This article in The Vancouver Sun goes a step further than previous reports regarding the issues with television viewing.  There actually may be a more serious issue than any of those things.  If television viewing does in fact disrupt or cause dysfunction with our hormone production, as the article suggests, there could be potentially HUGE implications.

Quote:
It (the study cited in the article) found that watching television inhibits the production of the hormone melatonin, which affects the immune system, sleep cycle and the onset of puberty.

Because of my personal history with health problems, the issue mentioned that interests me in particular is the possibility of early onset of puberty.  A large percentage of women with endometriosis experience the early onset of puberty. Certainly early puberty is not the cause of endometriosis (usually abbreviated “endo”), but it can be an indicator for future health issues.  Some 89 million women worldwide have endo, according to the Endometriosis Association.  Endo is a chronic, often painful hormonal and immune disease that affects girls as young as 8-yrs-old and women in their reproductive years and beyond.  It can be debilitating because of pain, internal bleeding and many other medical problems.

In our home, I know that my daughter may be predisposed to developing endo, and I want to do everything I can to help her possibly avoid that.  I do not wish for her to have to endure even a fraction of what I have had to go through.  According to the Endometriosis Association, among the things that are known to help promote health and decrease the risk of endo are:

• manage allergies and asthma (both of which my daughter already has)
• use purified water (which we do)
• reduce toxic exposures  (which we are learning more and more how to do)
• delay puberty

Since we are already taking many precautions with my own health and that of my daughter, this Sun article really got my attenton.  It was another affirmation for me as to why I should continue to limit “Screen Time” (which is what we call both TV and computer usage).

To further protect my daughter’s health, we will continue to be diligent in avoiding excessive television viewing.  It is a good reminder on those rougher days when I want to stick a video in and retreat ALL DAY! Nope, not gonna do it! If all the other reasons to limit “Screen Time” were not enough, we just added another one!

original post: Affirming Limits on TV Time