media useYou have probably already heard about the research that found that children spend as much as 7.5 hours a day on non-school-related media. That is a crazy amount of time spent in front of a screen if you do the math of having 24 hours in a day, about 8 hours of sleep, and another 7 hours in school, plus having to eat and do homework.

But a new study by Common Sense Media at least partially explains why children spending so much time with media: Their parents are spending even more time, up to 9 hours a day. Now you might respond by saying that much of that time is spent in front of a computer at work, but not so. The study found that parents spend most of that screen time with person use of media (about 7.5 hours). As with kids, it’s difficult to make the math work given the realities of a busy life.

And you don’t need to do a survey to know that media use is a real problem with both parents and children. Over the last week, I’ve seen many instances of screen time when it just wasn’t necessary including every member of a family on their smartphones at a restaurant, both parents and children walking down the street staring at their phones, and, scarily enough, four family members (including the driver) on their phones while driving down the highway.

The bottom line is that parents have to take a hard look in the mirror when they express concern for their children’s media use. As with most issues with families, if the kids have a problem, they got it from their parents.

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