My message board got me thinking about this today, so I decided to write about it. Television...should Colin be watching it or not. I will start out by saying that Colin watches TV. This started when he went to Miss Anne's for daycare. He had not laid eyes on TV before he went there and one day when I went to pick him up, I saw him laying in front of the television watching intently. I flipped out and was pretty upset. Then I slowly calmed down and finally threw in the towel and let him watch at home. Now that I stay home with him, we have our own schedule. He watches Playhouse Disney every morning when he wakes up. While he is waking up fully, he lays in his chair and watches The Wiggles or My Friends Tigger and Pooh. While he does this, I make coffee, eat a bowl of cereal, brush my teeth and throw on a clean t-shirt (sometimes!). Then we start our day together and the TV goes by the wayside. I keep the TV on all day for background noise and I keep it tuned to Noggin so that it is at least kid friendly noise going on. But once he gets going for the day, he is no longer interested in sitting still to watch TV. Now for the big no-no...he watches a Baby Einstein video in the evening while I get dinner ready. Those videos seriously freak me out with how they hold Colin's attention. Without those videos, I promise we would not eat dinner in this house and I would very rarely get to shower. However, I have read so much about how bad they are for Colin, that I am very careful not to let him watch more than one 30 minute video per day. I race around and do everything I need to in those 30 minutes because once they are up, no more for Colin. I feel bad enough that I play it once a day!! I know that those studies are really saying that you should not use the TV or videos as a babysitter, and that makes total sense to me. I play with Colin all day long and I know that 30 minutes a day watching a video is not going to make the slightest difference in the long run. But I still feel a little bit bad about it. OH WELL.
I know several people who do not allow TV at all. I just can't get on board with that...I need a few minutes here and there and sometimes television is the only way that I can get that! So I am determined to let go of the guilt! Heck, I watched the hell out of TV, and I turned out okay! (I think!) :-)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
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I love this post because I do exactly the same thing with the twins. Here's our schedule...
Sometimes they are up for The Wiggles -- which I hate and it drives me insame, but I'm starting to think the blue shirt dude (Anthony) is kinda cute...how totally wrong and disturbing is that?! Then they watch Higglytown Heroes and Tigger and Pooh. During that time I check my morning email, eat breakfast, wash my face, prepare my breakfast, prepare their breakfast, and prepare their morning bottles. After the theme song to the Mickey Mouse show is over, I switch it to MSNBC and we start our day. They don't watch MSNBC, but I like having the noise and it somewhat keeps me an "involved adult."
When they were younger they loved Baby Einstein. Now they only like it when they are miserable and sick.
So don't feel guilty. Tons of moms do this.
I remember always watching Sesame Street & Tom & Jerry when I was a kid.
The important thing is that the TV doesn't babysit my kids, but it does keep them entertain in the mornings when time is of the essence.
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