Good essay. I don't know how old the author's kid(s) are but mine are 14 and 9, and I've come to those same conclusions on my own. It all came to a head last year when dd was in seventh grade and was struggling mightily with school.
The kids' habit for the previous couple of years, encouraged by me, was to come home from school and watch tv. In theory I didn't have a problem with them watching a little tv, as I think everyone needs time to decompress from six hours at school. But it was never just a 30 minute show then get cracking on homework. I'd get caught up in my own stuff, avoiding dealing with the kids, and 30 minutes would turn into two hours of tv every afternoon, and then homework wasn't done. And in 5th and 6th grade dd was getting longer assignments. So she wouldn't start a major project till after dinner and then her dad and I would be up till 11:00 helping her get it done. It was insane.
After the trauma of dd's seventh grade I did some major soul searching and finally committed to help the kids deal better with this crucial afternoon time directly after they got home from school. So I instituted a no TV on school days policy. I expected the kids protest like crazy. They did complain at first, but they don't anymore, and they don't challenge it. It's a great success. I think it's because I 'officially' talked to them about it and clarified the expectations, at a time when we weren't arguing with each other. I still let them be on the computer for maybe 30 minutes if they want to. But they don't always bother, sometimes they go bike riding. Sometimes ds builds Lego projects, sometimes dd emails her friends or plays around on her horse-related web site (we tease her that it's a horsey Facebook). And then they get their homework done.
I bend the rule sometimes and we sit and watch Jeopardy after dinner Usually that's when I'm just emotionally tired and need some quiet. Oh, and Monday nights dh is out late and I take dd to piano lessons, I let ds watch tv, since he's alone in the house.
We still watch too much tv on weekends. But we've made huge progress in the past year, and I feel much less guilty! There is no doubt about, it took me committing to being available to the kids directly after school. We succeeded because I committed to it.
