TRA LA LA - BANANA SPLITS

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Couch Potatoes R Us

I could have told you this.

The survey suggested that children were more likely to be watching television or playing alone or with friends, playing computer games or watching DVDs than spending any time with their parents.

Family time appears to be much more marginalised - with shared meals lasting an average of 43 minutes per day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and 18% of families sharing only 17 minutes together.

Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood, says of the survey that "unlike the free-range youngsters of the past, most are kept penned up at home rather than out to play".

"And with most parents working - or exhaustedly trying to fit domestic responsibilities around work - there isn't much time for family activities either."

Nor can parents expect much help from children - with 38% saying their nine-year-old did no tidying up or household chores of any kind and 29% saying they helped for less than 30 minutes per week.

We struggle with this and I work part time. We work hard to spend time with the kids, but it is often them who crave "quiet time" with the computer or television. They even like to go to the park and climb trees from time to time. But then I have to give up my computer and go with them. Groan Groan.

Outside Play Play Play is Good for Children

Recently our kids have colonised our front yard tree. Pretty much anything of interest is now carefully arranged in virtual rooms throughout the tree. Sometimes they disappear for hours in a world of real virtual reality, not the computer versions.

Apparently young kids are not getting enough of this.

It flags up a recent Unicef finding that British children are among the developing world's unhappiest.

The letter says: "We believe that a key factor in this disturbing trend is the marked decline over the last 15 years in children's play."

The experts say that play - especially when it takes place outdoors - is crucial to a child's health.

An increase in traffic, parental fears about abduction by strangers and a "test-driven" culture of education have all contributed to the trend, they insist.

They add that "the ready availability of sedentary, sometimes addictive screen-based entertainment and the aggressive marketing of over-elaborate, commercialised toys" have also played a part.

They call for a "wide-ranging and informed public dialogue about the intrinsic nature and value of play in children's healthy development".

There is so much pressure to watch TV, play on video games and computers and other electronic toys such as MP3 Players and Mobile Phones that do everything except feed and bathe you and taking care of poos and wees. There is no tactile experience there and we will be raising a generation of sedentary individuals, liable to be deaf and blind at 40.

In Praise of the Wiggles

Pommygranate hits the nail on the head with an excellent post on the benefits to parents of entertaining distractions for annoying toddlers. Forget the impact to children. What about the young lives that are saved by inane singing and goofing around by numerous lightweight entertainers.

Allelujah and All Praise for the years of service provided by the Teletubbies, Wiggles, Bob the Builder and Play School, to name a few. Nut ball academics that preach the benefits of non television watching for kids under two need to be consigned to a screaming home to be sat inside a play pen and have mushed peas thrust onto their faces.

Although our kids generally poo poo that kind of stuff now and will deny ever having watched it, there are immense benefits in having ten minutes (if you are lucky) of quiet reflection while the young ones suck up inappropriate childrens audiovisual content.

I would have added my personal congratulations on succinctly slamming some of the nutty pc thinking, but Haloscan was sad.