Over the past few decades, we’ve seen the media permeate deeply into children’s lives. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report sets the amount of media exposure for an average American child at eight hours per day, more time than with family or in school.
While parents may see this as simply entertainment, in fact children are learning from the media, about language, role models, and values. Once this insight about the media’s impact on our children’s emotional and moral development becomes clear, parents do well to learn about the favorite media creations that grip their children’s imaginations and stir them even when they’re not watching or listening.
How to do this? When feasible, parents can watch their kids’ favorite shows with them, sidling up beside them any evening and quietly viewing. While doing so, parents can ask critical questions of themselves.