Say What?

While eating lunch I came across this headline on Canoe:

Canadian IDLE: Why our kids are flunkies
Is 6 hours of "screen time" too much? Hell yes! And that's not the worst of it.

Only 6 hours a week? I don't think that is excessive, I say to myself as I click the link for the full article.

TORONTO - Kids are putting in so much screen time - on computers, watching television and playing video games - that a report card on physical activity levels among children and youth is taking direct aim at the situation.

Active Healthy Kids Canada gave an overall grade of D in its annual report Tuesday, but in some subcategories, including physical activity and screen time, it awarded a flunking mark.

For screen time, the grade fell from D-minus last year to F this year. The report says the average child in the 10-to-16 age group typically spends six hours a day in front of some type of screen.

SCREEEEECH! That's me coming to a full and complete stop as I re-read that last sentence. Six hours A DAY ?!

Let's see, we have a child of about ten years of age on summer vacation. And we let them play some console game for an hour in the morning, a portable game like a Nintendo DS for an hour in the afternoon, and maybe a TV show after dinner before bed. Hell, make it a 120 minute movie and that's four hours. That would be my limit on "screen time" I think and even that is pushing it, perhaps only computer/console time once during the day instead of twice.

Still, in order to get up to six hours a day you pretty much have to let the kid do what they want and ignore them. What kind of parenting is that?

Sigh.