The Boob Tube

[houseelf]

This is a flashpoint conversation in our house. My son would become one with the TV if we let him. He will watch absolutely anything. I started buying videos in Spanish and letting him veg. (Hey...he still watches...what a TV addict!) I limit his intake by getting us out of the house for prolonged periods of time and redirecting him. If I'm truly honest, the quantity of TV becomes a bigger issue in Minnesota's dreaded winter months. Now that he is in school, I'm a little more lax at lunch time because he is drained but won't take a nap. We watch Zaboomafoo for an hour and maybe some of Sesame Street.

BUT...the flashpoint conversation between adults is the content of what he watches. There is a thread on this somewhere. I'll try to bump it for you.

Kelly

[SueC]

Some days are better than others, but we probably do watch too much TV at our house. Right when the girls wake up, they usually watch cartoons for probably a total of an hour in between eating breakfast, getting dressed, etc. The TV usually comes on again for my 4 year old while her little sister naps, but she is usually doing something else at the same time (coloring, cutting, etc.) so I don't feel too badly about that. Once Syd wakes up, the TV generally stays on and they usually play together (or fight with each other depending on how the day is going)--I could probably turn the TV off at this point since they are usually occupied with Barbies or whatever, but I don't usually think to do that. Late afternoon we usually take the dog for a walk and they don't watch anymore TV for the rest of the night, though dh and I usually have the TV on at some point before they go to bed, but it is one of our shows. I've never actually totaled up how much TV they watch and I probably won't--I'm kind of happy with how things are now and if I really knew the total of hours I'd probably start worrying about my parenting!

[mommax3]

My older two boys don't watch much tv at all. Nathan watches a fairly good amount (usually Noggin) though! For the older two, it isn't really anything I have done, it is more that between school, homework, sports practice, and bedtime, they don't have much time to watch, and when they do, they are much more likely to watch a video or DVD than a tv show. I would say that the older two watch less than an hour a day on weekdays (most weekdays they don't watch any tv) and less than two hours a day on weekends. They do play video games on weekends, too, and sometimes during the week if they have time.

Sally

Well, living with a Pediatrician the TV usage around here is low. Not because she is a "by the book" kinda gal (even though for most things she is!) but we just don't have the time. We are usually busy playing 4yr old games, like guess what animal/instrument/the happy-sad game or he is busy creating the next big house out of lego.

Although, we will occasionally let him just veg into one of his DVD's after dinner, but they are usually less than 30min worth of watching even then.

I was just thinking about this as I answered the cartoon love/hate question. We (as a family) don't watch much tv at all, probably because we don't have cable. DD probably sees less than an hour a day, but like SueC mentioned, she is always doing something else and rarely only watches. I usually put in a DVD for her while I shower, just to have one more distractor. Any other tv time would be a show that DH or I was watching, and we just don't watch much. A year or two ago, we actually put the tv in a closet for two weeks, just to see what would happen. I was surprised how little I missed it. I have always listened to the radio a lot and read the news online anyway, so it wasn't such a big deal. BUT it still came back out after two weeks.