Television challenge
I grew up with TV in the background.
Maybe due to being a latch Key kid from the time I was 6. TV became my babysitter. It helped keep time, it soothed, it entertained... it was even educational from time to time... even in ways I'm sure my folks would not want to know about. I would come home from school after riding buses across SF with a key hung on a piece of yarn around my neck and a quarter in my pocket for bus fare. I wouldn't talk to strangers or make much eye contact. Other friends who rode the bus got off at their stops a bit before mine... and I had tranfsers. For a while a freaky guy used to stare at me and follow me and stuff... God that sucked for a 9 year old....The point of going on a bout this is that when I got home and keyed in and locked the door behind me and said hello to the cat... the tv was my company until Mom got home three or so hours later. 3-2-1 Contact, sesame street, Inspector Gadget, Oprah, Donahue, the News.. the NEws and then Mom would come in. I didn't like aswering the phone much because I had gotten an obscene phonecall when I was about 8 that freaked me out so bad I lived in fear of that happening again. TV was my babysitter. My Big Sis enjoyed hanging out with her friends until she absolutely had to come home..so I was on my own a bit.
Before the divorce and move back to S.F when we were in Walnut Creek... I would go out and explore and play or walk to a friends house to hang out. I was outside. BUT if I was inside... the boob tube was on. usually after dinner to see The Muppet Show. That was when I knew Dad was due to arrive home in his three piece suit to say hello and laugh with me as I watched Swedish Chef.
Heck, even before that I remember the nursery school workers and even Ms. Adams from my very first memories of life watching All My Children after calling "Naptime" and getting their lunch break while surrounded by kids on little plastic cots.
TV was/is pervasive. It drains our brains and makes us zone out. It kills imagination. It desensitizes us. It's what we point our furniture at. I don't want my kids growing up TV heads like I did. BUT.... I love to read. I'm an avid Thinker. I have a big imagination. I relatively creative. So I question why it bugs me so. Clearly Hubby and I are "fine" from the experience and are aware of what the kids see etc etc.
I go through phases of "NO TV TODAY!" and I find Big Boy and Baby Girl find their oys intersting again, and go outside to play more.....BEYOND the usual 2 to 3 HOURS a day we are outside running, playing ball, riding trikes, running errands. I also find the whole place looks more like a tornado hit it and I am more tired from reffing fights and suggesting games and saying "No tv no tv no tv" all the time. I use the TV as a babysitter myself. Thinking about it, I am quite certain my kids see about an hour of TV a day. Maybe even two hours. I gag when I say this. But which is worse? Some zonign or being yelled at all the time by a mom who is just "done"?
Do I quit cold turkey? Do I cover it up? Do I wean us gently? Whenever I fight the TV monster funny things happen. Big Boy goes to visit a friend in the complex and when I arrive.. he's a zombie head sitting on their couch staring at the TV while his friend is playing with toys and ignoring the tv. It's still a new thing to him in a way. I used to be adamant about NO TV FOR BIG BOY until I was sooo morning sick while pregnant with Baby Girl something had to give because I COULD NOT actively play with him all the time. that's when Baby Einstein joined our family.
I'm still up in the air about the television. I have a friend who basically does not have a TV. No cable and only one set hidden in a cabinet. I marvel at that. I want to know how she spends her day and if we could do it too.
The jury is still out.. but while the Jury is still out We'll go on enjoying Thomas and Friends and the Backyardigans. Although... I did hear Diego (Dora's cousin the rainforest naturalist) is going to have his own show soon.... hmmm.