National Tune-off Tune-in Week began on April 20th, but since our schools were on Spring Break that week, and it would’ve caused a great deal of parental insanity to have had the kids in the house all day without the Big Box Babysitter, we’re promoting it this week.

According to TurnOffTV.com:

* Number of 30-second commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000.

* Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5.

* Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680.

* Percentage of children ages 6-17 who have TV’s in their bedrooms: 50.

* Percentage of day-care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70.

* Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours.

* Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1,500.

* Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66.

Moves like this are silly in some ways. All or nothing. Really, if 70% of day-cares use a TV, then find a day-care that doesn’t. And if 66% of people watch TV while eating dinner, then, don’t.

Nonetheless, the stats you see above result in shortened attention spans and expanding waistlines, and we need “weeks” like this to heighten our sensitivity to modern diseases as excessive TV. In fact, we should follow this up with National No-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup Week and National Bike-to-Work Week.

And so, as painful as it will be, our family will follow these recommendations.

Thank Heavens for DVR.