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TV Turn-Off Week

April 19-25 & September 19-25, 2010

Do you ever feel the television is running the lives of you and your children? Do you arrange your evening around a favourite soap or just despair at the amount of TV that your children watch? Have you ever felt left out because everyone else’s conversation consists solely of what was on TV last night and you didn’t watch? You are not alone.

TV Turnoff Week is a concept that started in the US and is catching hold in the rest of the world. Just try not watching TV for a week and see what other interesting things you could be doing!

If you want to watch less television and get your children to watch less TV here are some ideas to help and inspire you.

You don’t have to go Cold Turkey. You can put on the radio, some music or an audio book. It’s not an exercise in denial; it’s a way of getting your life back from the media.

Television is mesmerising . Why do you think it keeps the kids so quiet? You are hypnotised by the programmes, so that when the advertisements come on you are deep in their power. Why do you think TV is the most powerful advertising medium?

Watching TV is passive. You are not getting exercise. You are not learning anything (how much of those documentaries do you actually remember?) You are not getting any use out of the amazing brain that you were given.

Watch selectively. Decide as a family what programmes you really enjoy as opposed to those which you sit through waiting for something better to come on. Watch them then switch the TV off.

Set the kids a good example. Bluntly, if you spend all your free time slumped in front of the TV set, your kids won’t know any better.

It will take time to get used to it. If you have always lived in a home where the TV is on all day, it feels strange when the set is off. You hear stuff you never heard before (Is the central heating really that noisy? The third stair down creaks!). The atmosphere in the house is different. If we are unused to silence the change can be unsettling. You will get used to it, I promise.

Try a whole week with no TV . Write down all the things you did during the week. Where did you go? What did you read, make, mend, and listen to? Which friends did you catch up with? What did you learn? Look back and feel a real sense of achievement, and decide now that you won’t ever waste that much time again.

Official gadget of the campaign is called TV-B-Gone, a key-ring sized device to turn off any television. The inventors intended it for use in pubs, gyms and waiting rooms where TVs are used more and more as device to keep you docile. It could however also be used at home even when the kids have ‘lost’ the remote. It is available in the UK from Gadgets.co.uk, I Want One Of Those, Play.com& Prezzybox or the US from Amazon.com

Trash Your TV has lots of ideas and inspiration for a TV free lifestyle.

Television and the Family is an extensive piece of research from the American Academy of Paediatrics on the effects of television on children’s health and behaviour.

White Dot is an international campaigning organisation against TV. They have also researched the increasing amount of information that your TV is sending back to the television companies about you, if you have interactive TV.

Television - Good for our Children?
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Kidfluence
Most if us, I think, feel that advertising is influencing our kids more and more. But did you realise that in fact marketers are targeting your children to influence your purchasing decisions? When a car company produces a colouring book, when a store offers a crèche or activities for the kids their motives may not just be to keep your kids occupied so you can browse.

Trampoline Safety
When the warmer weather arrives you may be thinking about buying a trampoline for the garden. There are many good things about trampolining - they are a good form of healthy exercise as well as being great fun.

From Kid to Superkid
One in five children in the UK is overweight: It isn’t hard to work out why. It is becoming easier and easier for children to get hold of junk food and easier and easier for them to avoid exercising. Schools have cafeteria-style lunches and junk food filled vending machines; the requirements of league tables mean PE time is reduced; more and more kids are driven to school rather than walk as parents fear for their children’s safety.

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