Good job, Gatoress.
Right-to-the-point bumper sticker seen a few months ago, in Myrtle Beach:
"Kill your television" :o)
its a oderation thing...as long as anything is in moderation its not an issue...my kids watch 1 hr in the mornign, and an hr at night of cartoons(mostly noggin stuff) the nmix in the occasional discovery chanle show on trains, or weekyl Nova Science Now (my 6 year old intuitivly explaned relativity to me when he was 4...he loves watchign nova)..I have no issues wit hADD, no attention span issues, and for a pack of boys my kids a decently well behaved. there is nothign intrisicly evil about watching TV as long as its doen in moderation...hell baby einstines instilled a love for classical music from a very young age in my kids (their favorit composer is Vavaldi, they can identify most of the major artists).
don't kill/ban TV, espicaly dont' ban video games (very helpful in learning/devlopment) jsut understand that EVERYTHING can be overdone...its jsut taht soem thigns are easier to overdo then others(no one is going to sit down for hours on end doing math worksheets...well no one besides my middle son, its creepy.)
Hate to invoke Clay Shirky but he does have a good point on TV here:
http://www.herecomeseverybody.or...-the-
mouse.html
Frankly, I canceled cable after noticing that I hadn't watched TV for 6 months.
I do watch 1 hour of video (2 half hour stints while commuting usually an Amime episode). And I watch 1-2 films on my digital projector the weekend.
I'm proud to say that with the exception of Sundays film (L: Change the World) all of my viewing met Bechdel's law:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/
...chdels_law.html
And arguably even "L" nominally followed that rule (Maki and K do have words with each other over K's plan).
Of course it helps that I was predominantly watching Strawberry Panic. Very difficult to fail Bechdel's Law when there are no men in the story.
The truly tragic part is that in this day and age, the TV is a symptom of the problem, not a cause.
The problem itself is the paranoia when it comes to children both yours being hurt and others breaking your "peace and quiet".
That's the problem. Add on to that the situation where both parents are probably working and trying to keep up the house and all those other wonderful things..and homework! Don't forget the homework.
Nope. It's a very kid-unfriendly world out there. Hiking? Trespassing. Tinkering? Destruction of property. Everything is strictly organized.
Not that I'm saying that TV is great, it's not that at all, but balance is needed. But blaming even parents for the lack of balance I don't think is fair. The problem is society at large and their expectations for families and kids.
blow up your teevee
throw away your papers
move to the country
build you a home
plant a little garden
eat a lot of peaches
try to find jesus
on your own
'cept for the finding jesus part it's pretty much what i've done.
p.s. the lyric is by john prine
TV may be less benign than you imagine. This morning I came across a Cornell University study reporting a statistically significant correlation between TV watching up to the age of three and the appearance of autistic behavior. Pretty disturbing since one of our grandchildren will soon be four with a steady TV diet from the beginning. I put up a post about it for those interested, TV Might Cause Autism.
the good stuff is garbage b/c it usually winds up with some product tie in at your local store. and even if you don't buy it for your kid, your kid's friends have it at their house.
I'm one of those who swore to not turn on the TV and you know what happens? you find out that it's damn near impossible to keep a toddler occupied and NEAR you SAFELY while you attempt to put together something to eat, do the laundry, well pretty much keep the place you live in somewhat tidy.
As I read through the thread just now It occured to me, that 2nd and 3rd children might be more at risk here. Perhaps child one is not over exposed but child two born after child one is 2-3-4 yrs old... might be if mom and dad started to watch tv with child 1 at that time?
rambling I know, but I am curious if there is any stats about this angle.
Thanks gator, and better than the off button is just not having the TV at all.
I last owned one in 1975. Never had one in the house while raising my kids.
I really don't like painting with a broad brush and calling a medium intrinsically evil. I mean blogging and playing games are evil too and make people do bad things. I know the radio is evil. I'm watching baseball on a TV, which might be a nexus of evil things.
With kids it's good to moderate things and spend time for them, but instilling fear that the TV is going to come give you autism or make you developmentally disabled is likely overstated. Watch TV with your kids and discuss what you are watching with them. Play video games with your kids and enjoy your "parental supervision" of your child's activities. People have raised their kids in good and bad ways since humans crawled out of the forest. A diversity of activities is probably a lot better than trying to cut one or two thing entirely out.
wengler, I agree moderation of most things... but what does tv really give us but slanted news, re-enforced sterotyped characters, and a brain numbing way to kill a couple of hours?
I like movies. Specific time frame.
I like old tv before it got so... icky
I don't know. I hear what you are saying, and still...
All I know is, leaving the TV off during the kid's waking hours in the first 4 years of life was a hell of a lot cheaper than the best Montessori school for those years, and got the same results: A child with the acquired skill of attending to a task through completion.
YMMV.
TLG..old tv..like what. gilligans island? lucy? the kids shows who had the stars activly promoting products to kids mid show....when exactly was this golden age of good tv.
there are still good kids shows out there, look at PBS, Noggin, Sprout they all put out very good educational adn entertainign shows. I know I let my kids watch a few hrs of tv a day never had any attention span issues (well beyond whats normal for their ages) never had disiplin issues, never had any of the bad thigns associated with tv...look at teh parents, my guess the kids studied taht had lots of issues with lots of tv viewing a day where adsantie parents or uninvolved parents. As for the autuism link, i will fiel that right next to teh vacination "issue".
the problenm with kids aint the TV, its the parents.
saw an obese kid at the park the otehr day..the parent was complainign about some random societal cause for her kids weight...when they left mom was walkign kid was rideign a gas powerd scooter.....
hell watch nanny 911, or suepr nanny for a while, you will see some absolutly out of controll kids...I ahve never seen an episode where the kids where the hart of teh problem...if theres a problem with the kids, look to teh parents.
PhoenixRising: my kids (6, 4, 3..not countign the infante) just scratche built a puppet theater, and helped me build a trebuchet...and they watch soem tv.
the issue isn't leting the kids watch tv in MODERATION, you don't neeed to get rid of your TV, or cut the cable(soem of the best kids shows are on cable only stations) just dont' have it on all day..how hard is that....watching 8+ hrs of tv a day isn't good for adults either.
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