The latest research advises that children aged under two should watch no television at all - but don't panic, writes Clare Longrigg.
Are your children restless and impulsive? Do they have difficulty concentrating on one thing for more than a few minutes? If so, according to new research published in the US, they have been watching too much television and their brains have been wired wrongly at a crucial stage of their development.
Or, just possibly, they might be children.
A study published this week in the US journal Pediatrics recommends that no child under two years of age should ever be exposed to television, while children older than two should not watch television for more than two hours a day.
The more they watch, the more problems they will experience paying attention at school, and the more likely they are to be "easily confused".
Other studies have shown a link between watching television and obesity. Now, before we start beating ourselves up over this one, there are a couple of considerations to mitigate the impending guilt-attack.
Television does not make children fat. Sitting down all day makes children fat. The study says that the 10 per cent of children who suffer most from attention deficit, and who are most confused, are likely to be the same 10 per cent of children who watch more than seven hours of television a day.
Call me old-fashioned, but if a child is left in front of the television for more than seven hours a day, there are other problems in that household besides the unbearably shrill voices of the Tweenies. The chances are that those children's parents can't get out of bed. Or they don't like children very much.
If children are capable of sitting spellbound for hours in front of the television, but get restless and bored at school, there could be a solution here. If teachers of, say, maths, were to dress up as Teletubbies, we might see a revolution in the learning process, not to mention some interesting new research.
I confess I do find myself battling against the television for my son's attention at times, and the competition is stiff. Researchers observe that children get "mesmerised" by the television, and I have indeed found this to be true: on occasion I actually have to turn it off to get a reply to a question. But who's to say this is not lack of concentration, rather, an excess of it? When, possessed with the Blue Peter spirit of my own childhood, I attempt to lure my son into some allegedly improving activity such as building the spaceship we have just seen assembled by some bright young TV hopeful, he might show some initial interest, but tends to wander, trance-like, back to his spot on the sofa.
But perhaps that's just what he is like. His little sister is quickly bored by television and begs me to "do painting" or squidge some Play-Doh with her. After a day of hard knocks at nursery, my son takes refuge on the sofa and relaxes with his cast of familiar characters.
As a parent, television has its uses. One would like to think that every hour of the day was filled with fun-packed, educational games, but there are moments when one simply needs to immobilise the children. The playpen is now considered outrageously old-fashioned, even cruel, but fortunately the television, in short bursts, can have the same effect.
When the children get back from an outing, tired, fractious and hungry, it is essential to remove them to a safe place while you cook their lunch. Who wants whining children wrapped around your legs while you have pans of boiling water on the stove?
Many parents these days work from home while the children are at nursery or pre-school, but work has a way of flowing over our carefully planned timetables. Sometimes you just have to take a phone call, or return an e-mail, and when that happens, the television is a godsend.
I do have one caveat. A lot of children's programming is very good, with worthy educational messages, good songs and so forth, but it is still television. To go on about how, by watching CBeebies, the children are "learning through play", is just nonsense. They are not playing, they are watching TV. Even my son, aged four, on two hours of TV a day, knows that.- (Guardian Service)