Here’s some good news for parents of tweens and s: You rule.
That may be hard to believe sometimes. And it’s true kids won’t always follow your health and safety rules. But studies show parents who keep setting boundaries make a huge difference.
The latest example is a survey on media use by the Kaiser Family Foundation. It found that typical kids ages 8 to 18 spend an astonishing 7 hours and 38 minutes a day consuming entertainment media, indulging deeply in TV, computers, s, cellphones, music players and other devices while occasionally glancing at books and other non-electronic media. Many experts, including the pediatrics(小儿科) academy, consider that much screen time bad for mental and physical health.
But the study also found that kids whose parents set any time or content limits were plugged in for three hours less each day. "Parents can have a big influence," says Kaiser researcher Vicky Rideout.
"The reality is that agers care deeply what their parents think," says Kenneth Ginsburg, a specialist of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. "The challenge for parents is to get across rules and boundaries in a way that doesn’t feel controlling."
Research shows that parents who set firm rules but explain and enforce in a warm supportive way work better than those who set no rules, fail to enforce them or rule with a "because I said so" iron grip.
Ideally, "kids understand the rules are about their well-being and safety," Ginsburg says.
Still, achieving just-right parenting is "challenging", says Margaret Broe-Fitzpatrick, a teacher in Kensington, Md., who has four children, ages 8 to 16. "There are so many different things to keep track of." She and her husband keep their kids busy with sports and other activities, limit screen time and review the music their children download. They talk with their 16-year-old son about the rules he’ll face when he gets a driver’s license soon. But, she says, they can’t police everything the kids encounter on the Internet or in friends’ homes.
"We’re just doing the best we can," she says, "even if young people may protest at first, they do feel more safe and secure when limits are set.\
What did the kids do when parents set any time or content limits, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation