Tuesday, February 24, 2009

No T.V

Am I the crazy one? Ok, don't answer that. But do answer this. How much t.v do you allow your kids to watch/how much did they watch when they were under the age of 2???
Here's the issue:
We have never let Caden watch t.v. Its not that he asks for it or wants it, its just that we don't have our t.v on when Caden is awake so he really doesn't know what it is. I am so against parents who use a t.v as a babysitter. Caden is 21 months. Seriously, should I be offering him a cartoon, rather than a tractor, or blocks, or a crayon and paper?? I just can't take away his imagination to maybe get an hour of time without him bugging me. Its so not worth it.
I know people who let there kid(s) watch t.v./movies at all times during the day. Any time I go there, the t.v is on. What is this teaching them?
So, with that said, we were at my inlaws this weekend. They too, know that we don't allow t.v. But what do they do?? Buy Caden 2 movies. What am I suppose to do? How many times can I say it? CADEN DOES NOT WATCH T.V.!!!!! My mil thought we should just put the movie on to see what he would do. And let me tell you, boy was I proud of my boy. You know what he did? Paid absolutely NO attention what so ever to the t.v. He just continued playing with his toys. Even with my mil's encouraging, nothing. I wanted to hug him. Ha, I told you. Rob even told them that he won't be interested. It was just so nice to have him affirm what we've been saying.
Now, I'm not saying that we won't ever let C watch t.v, cause that's not the case at all. Once he's a little bit older, absolutely I'll let him watch some cartoons on treehouse or something. But why oh why would I introduce that to him already. He has way too many toys, books and things to do.
When I was growing up, we were very limited to t.v. We had a certain amount we could watch a day, so we had to choose wisely. Otherwise, we played outside, downstairs, in our rooms, with all of our many many toys. We had such an imagination. I played school, house, barbies, etc. We were farmers with our tractors in the dirt outside. We made amusement parks for apples in the sand box. Built forts and quinces in the winter. Who needed t.v.
Please, I want your input on this one. De-lurk yourself if you need to. How much do you let your kids watch t.v. and when did they start??

7 comments:

Jo-Refoh said...

If I were you I would hold out as long as I possibly could on the Tv. Maybe you can keep him from wantng it until he is 10 or so. My kids watch way too much TV. I am really guilty here. I started that when I worked nights 5 years ago. I worked until 4am and needed to sleep in the morning so the kids watched cedarmont kids sing-a-longs. Then it escalated. My kids's tv time is ending the minute I don't work anymore. They might get a half hour after school to unwind, and maybe half an hour before bed. Don't know yet, but I do know it will be over. I do use the tv as a babysitter cuz I am so tired during the week. And my kids don't have much of an imagination. Except Eden, she doesn't care for the tv much. She would much rather play and talk to herself and her animals. My question is how much time should 7-10 year old's get on the video games?

Shawna said...

I totally agree with you Jamy. I keep telling myself one day once we have kids, I don't want them watchin tv/movies like kids do these days. Movies should be a treat once they are a bit older. (which I will only let them watch the movies I watched growing up. Good ol' Disney and Veggie Tales). Especially cause (hopefully by then) we will live out in the country, I hope my kids would far rather be outside than inside on the couch!

Andrea said...

Oh yeah...I am SO with you on this one! The ONLY time that my 2 year old gets to watch movies (never tv...just movies that I KNOW are good and very kid-friendly), is when I'm really really sick and can't do anything other than lay on the couch. And that's pretty rare. I agree that t.v. really really interferes with kids' imaginations and they don't learn how to PLAY when all the do is sit and watch tv. VERY good post!!

Amanda said...

I am totally guilty of letting my daughter watch too much TV. My husband started her on it and I didn't argue enough, I suppose. It definitely does make a difference that I am a working mom and I need time to do everything that needs to get done such as supper etc. It's totally different in the summer too - we are outside non-stop with no tv on. It is hard being a working mom. I try to work on it, but I know that in the end, it'll all be okay.

Colleen said...

I'm with you with kids watching too much tv. My kids get to watch about 2 shows in the morning and that's usually it for the day. Come summer they will be lucky to watch 1. Cole had no interest in watching anything till he was almost 2.5 yrs old. I bought him a Tractor Tom dvd for christmas when he was just over 2 and he wouldn't sit long enough to watch a 10 min episode. When he did watch he got to watch 1 or 2 episodes. I think it's all about moderation.

Heather said...

I think I was letting Selah watch too much tv. Not that she was always watching it, she would watch a little bit, then play. But I had it on too often. Now our tv room downstairs is almost complete, and the tv is down there. So the past few days we haven't watched any tv, and she is just fine without it.

Amy said...

I think it's great that he doesn't watch it. I love watching him dance to the music station anyways; it's great that he "asks" for it. It's so great, my kids won't either, the hardest part will be ME not wanting to watch it!