The Boob-Tube

How much television do you let your kids watch? Do you ban it altogether?

Lately I've been wanting to put more limits on the TV watching in this house. This is the routine as it stands right now: Timm and I watch a few minutes of the morning news when we first get up (basically until they give us the weather report) and then we switch it to kids' shows. We only watch PBS shows, but have recently started watching stuff on the Disney Preschool Channel as well (favorites are Curious George, Cat in the Hat, Super Why, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates). Timm and I sort of require the television in the morning just to be able to drink a couple of cups of coffee in relative peace before really starting the day. The TV stays on basically from 7am till Timm gets in the shower around 10am. (That seems like a really long time, now that I see it in print...) Then Iris gets a movie to watch at around 1pm (she gave up naps at age 2, but still needed some "down time" and this was the solution I arrived at to keep her calm, relaxed, and in one spot while I took care of getting Asher down for a nap. It still works for the most part... I'm pretty sure Iris could drop the movie-time but now I need the movie to get Asher to nap at all!). After that, the television is off for the rest of the day (although on some occasions I will allow one episode of Wonderpets while I make dinner if they are getting in the way in the kitchen).

That seems like a lot of time with the television on, right?

But it's not so much the shows they watch that bothers me, but the commercials they see. They are annoying, and my daughter is at the age to now pay attention to what the commercials are advertising. And despite the fact that the only real commercials they see are on during the few minutes Timm and I watch the news (obviously PBS doesn't air commercials, and Disney Preschool only promotes other Disney shows and their website) lately advertisements have been coming up in conversation with Iris. For example, at the grocery store yesterday we were stopped in the cereal aisle. Iris points out, "Hey, look! It's Honey Bunches of Toes!" We don't buy Honey Bunches of Oats. She has never eaten it. And she can't read. But she knew that box and that label from the commercials that air during the morning news. And just this morning on Disney, they were talking about their website or something (I wasn't really paying attention), she turns to me and exclaims, "That's where all the magic happens!" Also, my precious daughter, knowing that I like to buy things only when they go on sale (and when I have a coupon, of course), after seeing an electronics store commercial informed me, "Mom, everything is on sale at that store!"

I really prefer my daughter's own original thoughts way more than hearing the nonsense advertisers come up with being regurgitated back at me.

I'm beginning to think, as I'm writing this, maybe I don't need to limit the kids' shows so much, but I just need to stop watching the news in the morning... Those 5 minutes seem to be almost more damaging than anything else!

We have introduced the idea of "TV Free Day" where we haven't turned on the TV all day and it worked out just fine (the one time we actually did it). I just don't think I have the nerve to do it all the time. Having the television on in the morning makes the start of the day so much more... relaxing. And I can do things like write in my blog semi-uninterrupted...