As we walked into the office of our new pediatrican we were greeted by a television with loud volume. Curious George was on and there was no escaping the sounds of the cartoon.
Since we homeschool and since the times the office will do physicals is limited by their office policy, we were there during our regular school time. In fact, it was prime lesson focus time in our family. So, my kids brought homeschool lessons to do while they waited. We were the only people in the "well child area" and in the "teen area" (which were side by side). My eleven year old had a hard time reading his book as the sounds of Curious George tempted him to watch even though he doesn't watch little kid cartoons at home. My fourteen year old was distracted also and pulled his iPod Nano out so the music would drown out the distracting cartoon. (My sons rarely use their iPods in public, it's something I've discouraged.)
When I entered the exam room with my fourteen year old, who was there for a physical, the first thing the medical assistant did was go to the TV hanging from the wall and hit the play button on a Disney Movie, it was Up. The volume was muted and it was not closed captioned. (Who can watch it that way?) The medical assistant proceeded to ask questions, one was:
"Does your child watch two hours or less of TV a day?"
I answered yes.
I bit my tongue. Do these pediatricians not see their own hypocrisy? We were in the office a total of 75 minutes. If my kids had watched TV that whole time, then nearly all their screen time would have been eaten up that day. And it was against my will, against the parent's will.
When the assistant left the room I got up and shut the thing off. Then my son both read our books (a paperback and an ebook).
How can a doctor provide TV as a distractor and as a child-pleaser yet seem to imply that using it as such at home is negative? If too much TV is harmful to a child's health, why should it be in a pediatrician's office?
(I will say that the TV in the ER exam room when my four year old had a terrible accident with a broken and dislocated arm was a good distractor. The ER visit while waiting for the orthopedist specialist was very long and in the case of trying to appease a young child in great pain and suffering, the TV was a lifesaver.)
This is the first pediatrican's office I've been in with a TV. They are usually silent places in the waiting room and silent in the exam rooms.
Since our family has been pretty much hand-held video game prohibited, and for so long we had no MP3 players, we have relied on reading books at doctor's offices. The kids have read to themselves. I've read picture books aloud in the waiting room. I have read aloud more complex nonfiction books in the exam rooms. I have even brought along easy to assemble board games and card games. We have brought more traditional lessons and even done phonics and penmanship and math right in the waiting room and in the exam room. (Our former pediatrician's visits would commonly run 90 minutes and the longest physical took 3 hours and 15 minutes).
Honestly I think pediatricians should support the AAP recommendation to keep kid's TV screen time to two hours or less a day, but that means they need to comply by not allowing TV into their waiting rooms and exam rooms. It makes it hard for a parent to encourage their kids to read books while they wait at the doctor's office while TV with audio sound is blaring. If TV is harmful to kids, why would pediatricians use them? How about living what you preach, doctors?