Moms Talk: How Do You Handle Media with Your Children?

Modern media—are you kiding me? How many TV channels? How many "reality" shows? How many YouTube videos? How many game systems? How many genres of music and artists (or “artists”) within each genre? How many movies come out every Friday?  The really special ones come out on Wednesdays? At Midnight?! How are we supposed to craft reasonable, relatively easy-to-enforce rules regarding our kids’ media consumption in this relentless barrage? 

While I know kids need solid boundaries, we (as in, The Worthingtons) have often taken the media issues on a case-by-case basis.  When my daughter was in grade school, she was allowed to watch Lizzie McGuire until she began acting like Lizzie McGuire. That plug was pulled. When my kids got older, they became interested in trashy horror movies. We allowed it, but we made them watch Hitchcock films, too, to see what a real, quality horror flick looked like. 

Most recently, though, I dragged my 12-year-old son to see The King’s Speech.  In the car on the way, I gave him a a little lesson on the dynamics of British royalty and quick tutorial on WWII, Hitler and the Holocaust for historical context. 

Throughout the movie, I thought he was pretty bored...though he laughed pretty hard at the cursing scene. Around three-quarters of the way through the movie, though, one of the characters said something quietly.  My son leaned over to me and asked, “What did he say?” Victory! He was listening. He wanted to know. (So what if I had to pay him $5 to come with me?  On a Saturday night?  At the mall?  He can work it out in therapy later.) 

What media rules do you implement in your household? Are they hard and fast? Are they loosey-goosey? Do they involve hours? Do they vary by kid? As Lionel Logue told the future King of England, “My house, my rules.”  Worked out pretty well for him....