When you hear the words, “everything in moderation,” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Most likely you are thinking of food. We tend to think about dieting and eating less of the bad foods out there when we hear the word moderation, but the phrase, “everything in moderation” can be applied to every other area in life as well. What other areas in your life do you need to practice a little more moderation? Basically anything that allows you to overdo it can be applicable here. Of course, eating falls into the category of what should be kept in moderation, but what about video and computer games, television, the internet, time alone, time with friends, spending money, and the list goes on and on.
If you are concerned that your family is spending too much of their time with any of these activities, and that you are missing out on getting to know each other as a family, then you need to implement some house rules that will put moderation in effect. You should also talk to your kids and your spouse about moderation and why it is important. You can use examples from the media and the news to show them what happens when moderation is not practiced. Let them know that some of the rules will be changing, but that you have their best interest in mind, and will look for ways for them to still have fun while practicing moderation.
One example of something that you can change is to put limits on gaming time. Video and computer games are very addicting – they are made that way so that teens and adults will spend more money on them as their addiction steadily grows. It would be helpful to your whole family if you only gave them so much time each week or each day for these kinds of games. You could emphasize the fact that board games and puzzles played as a family have no time limits, because they actually promote family togetherness and brain activity…
Another thing to moderate is the TV. Some families have decided to abolish TV watching altogether, and only allow their children to watch movies, but if you don’t want to go that far with it, you should at least set a time limit for how much they can watch TV each day. When you think about it, sometimes the television gets turned on the moment they get home from school and doesn’t get turned off until after the 11 o’clock news! That is a whole lot of TV watching, and it probably puts a dent in your hydro bill as well.
The internet is something else that should be moderated, and not just because people can spend too much time on it; websites should also be tracked, especially when you have kids. There are a shocking number of sites that are not good for anyone to be on, let alone your kids, and unfortunately, many of them are designed to be easily found or found by accident, so make sure you keep your computer out in the open, where kids can be monitored while on the internet.
As with everything else, even moderating things should be kept in moderation! People can sometimes go too far in either direction, which is just as bad as not moderating at all. Remember to have fun together as a family.