Courtesy The Nutrition Post
I have a love/hate relationship with my TV. When Downton Abby is on, I HATE it! When the Kansas Jayhawks are on, I LOVE it, unless they are losing, then I hate it.
About 2 years ago, my wife and I had a conversation involving our TV. We had satellite and were stuck in a 2 year contract. We both agreed that we were watching too much TV. She said I was watching too much baseball and I said she was watching too much Project Runway. It was right then and there that we decided when our contract was up that we would end it with cable. We bought a Roku box to stream Netflix, Pandora, and my MLB.tv and we haven’t looked back.
During the conversation, we talked that we did not want our son to grow up and think that TV is the only form of entertainment. We were going to make a conscious effort to only watch an hour of TV around our son. At the time I was a stay-at-home-dad and TV was the only way that I was able to make it through the day sometimes, so I immediately broke the rule. My wife soon found shows on other broadcast networks and on Netflix that she enjoyed watching, and soon after she started breaking our one hour of TV around our son rule.
We are now 1 year into without cable, and we wouldn’t look back. But you want to know something? We watch just as much TV now, as we did when we had cable. Since we do not have a DVR, we have to make a point to watch our shows when they are on. No waiting until, our son is sleeping and popping some popcorn and seeing the latest saga of Jim and Pam on The Office.
It has gotten to the point that we now use TV as bribery in potty training my son. Yeah, it is that bad. Watching parts of the movie Cars might work to help him to his business, but the lessons we are teaching him is that sitting on the pot watching TV is OK. Everything is so readily available though. We can turn Netflix on our iPhones while my son is trying to take the Browns to the Super Bowl.
TV has become a form of babysitting in our house. It gives both mom and dad some time and distraction to get things done that we need to get done without a 2-year-old saying ”Hold You.”
This is not the example that we want to set though. We do not want him to think that sitting in front of the TV all day is OK. Reading a book is just fine, playing with his Thomas the Tank Engines is perfectly all right. Watching dad shoot some hoops, and wondering why dad did not play basketball is even better. We want him to get out and enjoy life for what it is, not become some couch potato.
Has the television become a form a babysitting in your home? What do you do to keep your kids from watching too much TV?
About The Rookie Dad
We got rid of cable about 2 years ago. We still watch Netflix a little more than we’d like, but comparatively, we’ve cut down tremendously. It’s really about starting new habits for us. The kids rarely get more than an hour a day on average, but there are some days that the tube is our only saving grace for getting some relief.
Sometimes the TV is the only way to keep things calm in our house! I don’t like it but sometimes it is inevitable.
I can totally relate because the peace television brings often deludes me into thinking it is ok for them to watch just one more show and then just one more until you’re feeling guilty because you’re kid just watched 2 hours of tv when you were thinking it would be a 20 minute show and then outside to play.
We do our best and some days are better than others. We’ve been pretty good about limiting them to no more than 1 hour screen time per day on weekdays and 2 hours on weekends. Our kids are still pretty young (5 and 2) so I know this battle is going to get worse before it gets better.
We haven’t set a certain amount of TV yet that our son can watch. Maybe that is something that we need look into but that would also mean limiting the amount of TV that we as parents watch… which is not a bad thing.
Its a fine line. I let the kids watch TV but I’m mindful to make sure they are off the couch doing something…and so I can watch what I want
Short story – wife and I decided to cook a meal together last Saturday. We set the 5yo up with a big boy Lego kit at one table, and the 2yo watching Nemo in front of the TV. What followed was one of the most enjoyable/peaceful times spent doing something together with my wife in few months. TV babysitting has it’s places, IMO.
I am sure you all can tell at this point I have a serious television addiction. My wife more so than myself which is a recipe for disaster. I have made it a point however to make sure the TV is turned off the entire afternoon everyday. I would like to say that there are a lot of educational programs on these days. I credit m daughter being able to count and know colors because they are interactive. I feel the technology could be very beneficial if used properly. Although we do love our TV, we do plenty of other entertaining activities, and in no way does it control our lives. It’s more background noise sometimes.
I think its safe to say we’d all love for us and our kids to watch less tv, but not all TV is bad. My wife works primarily from home. My son is 8 now, but when he was younger(before he went to school), TV helped my wife get through her day. She has never been a morning person, so to throw a Blue’s Clues video in while she drinks her morning cup(s) of coffee until she’s ready for the day to really get going can be the difference between the day starting real bad or real good. Then when you get home from work and your 2 year old not only can draw, but also say, parallelogram…you realize that just the right amount TV may not be so bad!