Ahhh, TV. To watch or not to watch? How long is okay? PBS or Nick Jr.? These are all questions I have asked myself for years. These days, my kids watch TV in the morning before school and then Zach watches one show after school after he finishes his homework. I am pretty strict about what both of my kids watch and it's mainly PBS. I also have to balance between what Zach can watch (he's 6) and what Brie can watch (she's 3).
Some of this has become a joke between my husband and I. Jeff often thinks that I am overprotective and that Zach is too old for some of the shows that he watches. I feel that if he likes these educational shows then why not let him watch them until he gets to a point where he is bored with them. I'm sure that at that point, I will need to figure out which shows are appropriate and will likely have a hard time with most of them.
This is all so different from when we were kids, though. I can remember watching many shows that were probably not entirely appropriate (there were also fewer choices back then). But I turned out okay. And my parents always took me to see movies that weren't necessarily the typical kid movies (I can remember seeing Amadeus at an artsy theatre in NY) and I actually liked it. But then today's movies and TV have so much violence, sex, etc. that it's also a much harder task to make choices that are older, interesting and still appropriate. So I think that we have to be more selective that our parents were.
Case in point: Jeff and I slept late the other morning while the kids went downstairs to watch TV. In my partially-awake state, I called down to Zach to make sure he was watching 802, our PBS station, to which he responded yes. Jeff then joked, "Yeah, Mom. I'm watching 802. I'm taking the car out to pick up some beer. See you later."
See what I have to deal with? I would love to hear thoughts from others on my TV dilemma.
Cheers,
Renay
2 comments:
I remember that dilema - Arthur or Spongebob? We waited longer than most parents did but eventually 'caved'. Just wait because it gets worse - our dilema now is what PG-13 movie is acceptable?
We used to worry about words like "stupid" and "shut-up". Now the words are much worse and we are on the look-out for the ever possible "brief nudity" warning at the beginning of a movie.
Welcome to the beginning of the end of their innocence! That's why there is no hurry and you should expose them to 'it' when you think they are ready. Before you know it you'll be asking them to pick up a 6-pack of beer AND a tobacco product. :)
Congrats on the new job!
Thanks for the advice. I know that it will become much harder over time with all of the media that kids are exposed to. It's also tough with my daughter who is younger. She is already effected (in some ways good, some ways not so good) by having an older sibling who is starting to take interest in older kids' shows, video games, etc.
Now what do you do with the internet? :) That's a topic for many more blog posts...
Cheers,
Renay
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