I’ll confess. I was one of those moms. I was the kind of mom that you hear about but assume is a myth… the one that bans TV from the house (during the baby’s waking hours anyway). Yep.
But then I had a second kid less than two years later. And all that changed.
It started slowly enough: I’d let Holden (22 months) watch 12 minutes of Wonder Pets or Signing Time about 3 times a week. I figured that it hardly counted in the grand scheme of things.
Of course it’s a slippery slope. As I feared it would be.
Next came Wonder Pets every day! Luckily the precious baby was disinterested. I patted myself on the back. I felt cocky that my kids weren’t on track to be those Baby Einstein zombie kids that some of my friends have (and if you’re reading… your kids all turned out great anyway. I say it in love.)
Fast forward about 18 months and we watch about 24 minutes of TV every weekday. I’ve rationalized that the kids (age 22 months and 3 1/2) are so busy, social, and engaged all day long at preschool that they really need to unwind. Plus, I gotta cook! So, each day at 5:30 we now watch one of our shows.
Shows we they love right now:
- Sid the Science Kid — curious kid explores his world. Singing and science with cool Jim Henson vibe. (appropriate for 4 and up with nothing bad for the younger folks)
- Word World — animals sing and make words out of letters. (rated for 3+ with some iffy content for younger ones. oops) See Auntie Em’s full review.
- Go, Diego, Go — you don’t need me to tell you what Diego is but if you’re already watching you should check out the Common Sense review and see if you agree. Holden has been afraid of the volcanoes and evil wizards lately and is on a break.
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My daughter loves the PBS Shows as well — Sid the Science Kid, Word World, and Super Why. We’ve had to ban some shows from our house though because I really don’t like how some of the kids/characters act. I really don’t need a cartoon teaching my 3 yr old words like “jerk”! I wish we didn’t watch so much TV in our house and it’s one of my goals this year to scale down on the TV watching.
We also began our journey as parents in a anti-TV mode, but I’ve since come to believe that a) there is lots of great content on TV that engages my kids in a positive way and b) parenting is challenging enough and making rules for yourself that you later feel guilty about changing does not really make sense.
My kids watch a show before breakfast and one before dinner.
What I’ve been questioning lately is how we don’t ever have the tv on for ourselves in their presence, so when we do want to watch something like a debate, the Oscars, or a football game, they are confused. They aren’t familiar with the idea of the tv offering shows that are just for Mommy and Daddy. (Granola parenting is backfiring on me…)
I don’t own a TV, forbid one to enter the house, and children have absolutely no access to one.