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How much TV...
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Anonymous
| My pediatrician always asks us about tv time at each well baby visit, and he actually said that sports are okay and don't count after the child is 2 or older. I wonder about all those ads (beer and babes!), but it was an answer I liked!!! |
Anonymous
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To the mom of the 9mo who sneaks peeks at Hardball - our 4yo is a total fan and shocked us last year by shouting 'hey, that's Chuck Todd' when the NBC pollster popped onto the screen. He was originally a fan of the PBS Newshour (or in his previous lingo, "Bum-Bums" aka the theme music) and also went through a Tucker Carlson phase. Every time I fear we are raising a freaky inside-the-beltway child, I remember he is much more obsessed with NASCAR and tigers, so he'll probably balance out OK.
To answer the OP's question, we surely allow more TV than we should. We have a lot of news on in the early evenings which is mostly background noise for him, but as the anecdote above suggests, he is certainly aware of it. We avoid kids TV during the week mostly because he is constitutionally incapable of watching only 1 episode of Diego or Backyardigans without pitching a fit for more. We do allow some early AM and post-nap DVD time on the weekends. I wish I were as noble a parent as all those no-tv-ever moms, but to echo a previous poster I grew up on TV and still managed to get a PhD. Our son loves to read, pretend play and run around the park and pool, and we do all those things every day too - of all my human failings, the TV thing isn't something I can get worked up about so long as my child seems health and well-balanced. |
Anonymous
| Ha! I'm a no TV mom (but my daughter is only 17 mos) and I assure you it's based not on nobility but rather paranoia! |
Anonymous
So, sports are OK, but Elmo is not. That's just silly (not you, PP but the pediatrician's comment). |
Anonymous
| i think what a lot of moms here are NOT getting (yes, even you with the Ph.D) is that kids under the age of 2 are not processing what they are seeing. it's just a bunch of jumping lights. maybe you survived a diet of tv as a child, but kids today (at younger and younger ages) are being fed waaaay too much "for children" programming like it's educational. there has been an explosion of kids with ADHD. why do you think that is? the AAP thinks its the TV. that's good enough for me. |
Anonymous
OR moms "get" that that is the argument, but disagree with the results . . . |
Anonymous
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I just do not get how everyone has so much time for TV! This is what our day looks like:
-I exercise in the moning and am not finished showering and getting ready for the day until 8am, in the meantime DH wakes with DS at 7am and gets him fed, dressed, and they play (dad works late hours, so morning is important. -At about 8:30 DS and I leave the house to do whatever errands are for the day. THis includes grocery shopping, drycleaners, bank, and whatever else we have to do. -At around 10ish we normally have some sort of activity we do. Go to the park, see a show, visit at friends house (or have friends over), go to see see animals. A lunch is packed wherever we are going because normally it runs till lunch or later. -By the time we are heading home around 1-1:30 DS is pooped and I'm working hard to keep him awake in the car. -We get home and then DS naps until 3:30-4ish. DS wakes up and we have a snack and go outside to play in the backyard. He wants to be outside ALL THE TIME. -I then TRY to get him inside or else he continues to play outside while I go some fast dinner prep or else is plays in the family room with his toys. Dad comes home from work and plays with DS and either one of us then get him ready for bed, bath, book, and in bed by 8:30. I feel like my entire day is go,go,go. Even when DS starts to outgrow his nap (he's 27mos) he will begin pre-school and I can imagine we will still do things together in the afternoon and by that time I'll have ANOTHER baby and it will be even crazier than before. TV is not even an option, we don't have one on the main level. Where does all of this TV time creep in? Even when I was looking into daycare as an option, most daycares I saw did not even have one, I would think they would be too busy playing to watch TV. When DS was an infant, I nursed for a year. I would read at least 2 books a week. I started out watching TV, but after a week of watching TV from my rocking chair nursing, I was ready to kill myself from the lack of programming. Generally there's nothing even to watch. |
Anonymous
I'm going to be a little argumentative. Who says they only see a bunch of jumping lights? For example, my 18 month old watches Get Up and Dance-- a Sesame Street video. You know what she does? She gets up and dances. She points, and says Big Bird! and (correctly) follows the little dance moves. If she sees a Thomas video, she names each train as it comes on the screen--associating the trains with the books we read and the toys we have. She is clearly processing what she sees. I don't kid myself into thinking these shows are educational, but they ARE entertainment. I would certainly believe that infants don't process it. They probably don't process books either, but we still read them. I'm all for severely limiting TV--for both kids and adults. Don't get me wrong. I'm just highly skeptical about saying kids are magically ready to process TV at age two, and that TV is to blame for an exposion of ADHD. People like to have something to blame. Maybe it's a contributing factor or a trigger for some people (just like vaccines and autism). But I also think with these conditions, it isn't 100% an explosion in the syndrome, but is at least party an explosion in diagnosis. But I digress. |
Anonymous
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No research has found a causitive link between TV and ADHD, autism, or any other increasingly common diagnosis. Those diagnoses are going up because people are more aware of the conditions and seeking treatment. And some would say they're overdiagnosed.
My almost 3 yo probably watches 45 minutes on average. Some days it's two hours, many days it's none. I don't know when we officially started letting him watch TV -- probably 9 mos or so. My 5 mo is often "watching" when the TV is on for the 3 yo. I don't think I'm a good or bad mother for taking this approach. To me, it's about variety of activity. As long as TV is part of a broad, healthy diet of activities -- indoor and outdoor play, reading, trips out and about, etc. -- I don't see why anyone spends time stressing about the specific amount. |
Anonymous
| um, tv is NOT an activity. my son is 11 mos. i can't imagine plopping him in front of a tv. and did someone really compare READING A BOOK to a baby to letting them watch tv? wow. i'm just stunned. |
Anonymous
No, I did not (intend to) compare reading a book to watching TV. I was making a distinction between a toddler watching (and processing) TV as compared to an infant, who probably does not process it. The comment about an infant not processing books was not meant to be a comparison, but rather a (probably unnecessary) sidenote. |
Anonymous
| What if it's "Reading Rainbow"? |
Anonymous
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i think the pro-tv parents or indifferent-tv parents are not chiming in here. i'm pretty indifferent. my kid has been watching wiggles since 1.5 years old. now she's 4, in daycare most of the day, then the evenings, the norm is to keep the tv on til bedtime. not always actively watching it, but still, it's definitely way past the 1 hour mark either on noggin, sprout or some other such kids show.
the amazing thing is the amount of knowledge she picks up from tv. about animals, especially. and she's long been very verbally advanced and sharp minded. oh, and she's not obese. my point is that tv isn't all bad all the time. i'm not condoning watching tv all the time and doing nothing else, but for all the sirens everyone's sounding, i have not seen the harm. the only negative thing i've seen is the effect the commercials have on her consumer awareness. but good thing about sprout and noggin is that they don't really do the usual 5 billion commercials. |
Anonymous
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Another story- When I was pregnant with my second I let my 18 month old watch a lot of children's tv (elmo, Kipper etc) because the weight of my baby had torn scar tissue near the placent and caused me a great deal of pain. If I had a good day- little pain- we went on errands and played in the park, library etc and no tv. If it was a bad day with no possibility of relief until my husband came home -we were on a fixed income then and babysitting was out of the question- the TV went on in the morning and through the day. I would sit and talk to her and play as much as I could, but movement was difficult and it was all I could do to change her and get lunch. This continued for the last trimester of pregnancy and well until my son was about 3 or 4 months old.
LOng story short- she's a fine and inquisitve nine year old who goes to a gt curriculum school. THis isn't a magic aha story- and I hope I don't get flamed for this- but circumstances can sometimes prevail over our best intentions. Sometimes now there are days that are so rough that I declare a TV day for my now 9, 7, and 2 year old- as long as Iv'e vetted it out or have time to view it they are able to go hog wild. Then it's TV day over and not to be repeated for a month or so. It's the equivalent of a happy meal with a shake- a special treat, not an every day occurance. OP- if you feel that your child is watching too much- change it around or turn it off as soon as the "favorite show" is over. Just don't beat yourself up about it- the mere fact that you are worried about the tv intake shows that you are a caring parent. |
Anonymous
You stun easily. And you also willfully misinterpret easily; obviously, I was saying that as long as a kid is doing all sorts of things throughout the day, such as reading, playing, etc., TV just isn't a big deal. You may not choose it for your kids, which is totally valid. But letting kids, even babies, watch some TV just is not worth getting righteously indignant over. |