5 Healthy New Year's Resolutions

Let us start by saying that we are not against TV in general, as it can be a wonderful medium for education, for keeping in touch with the world, and for entertainment. But consider these facts: recent studies have shown that the average American child watches 25 hours of TV per week. If we assume that your children sleep nine hours per night, that means that 24 percent of their waking hours are spent watching television! Think about that—that's nearly one fourth of their entire childhood. Three full months per year. Ten full years by the age of 40. Imagine what could be done with all that time.

Other studies have shown that in a typical year, kids see 40,000 commercials attempting to influence their behavior, and witness 10,000 violent acts. Now that reality TV is all the rage, we suspect that a typical TV viewer sees over 1,000 incidents per year of an individual being indignantly ejected from their 15 minutes of fame by a conspiracy of their peers, but we admit we have no statistical data on this supposition. Actual studies have demonstrated correlations between childhood obesity and the number of hours of television watched each day, and between school performance and television hours per day. There are many good reasons to cut down.

Try limiting each family member's TV viewing to an absolute maximum of two hours per day. That is more than enough time to follow your favorite shows and catch up on the news. And take the TVs out of kids' bedrooms!