We are not parents who outlaw TV for our kids. There have been many times when turning the TV on saved my sanity. If we just went grocery shopping and have a whole carload of groceries to unload as well as lunches to prepare so everybody can eat and the kids can get their naps in at a decent time, sometimes the easiest thing to do is just say, "Go turn on a show while Mommy and Daddy get things put away and get lunch ready." We don't want them making a huge mess with crayons and dress-up clothes right before lunch and naps, we just want to quickly get things in order so we can get tired, cranky kids down for naps.
We let Lydia watch a show during her quiet time. She gave up naps shortly after turning two, so now when the other two nap, she lays on the couch and watches a movie or show and every once in a while will fall asleep. Often one of us lays with her. We also let the girls watch a show before bed. It has become part of our routine, and they know that after their bedtime show, it's bedtime. We snuggle up on the couch under a blanket and watch our show and it's really nice just sitting down and relaxing. We also read books every night before bed, but TV is nice for relaxing as well. TV is considered a privilege in our house, and it can be taken away for bad behavior.
At first, we weren't sure how to handle the TV situation. We weren't sure how much was too much, or what shows were OK. Lydia has developed a taste for Scooby Doo, Phineas and Ferb, and SpongeBob, which aren't my favorites (OK, SpongeBob makes me laugh sometimes). We generally kept PBS on as much as possible.
Then one day, shortly before Lydia turned four, she was in my office after school while one of my AP Statistics students was taking a test. The student brought his test to me to ask me about one of the hypotheses he had written down. When he walked away, Lydia looked at me and said, "I know what a hypothesis is. It's an idea that can be tested." Thank you, Dinosaur Train! I started to realize that I didn't need to feel guilty for letting her watch TV. She was actually learning some good things from it.
Lydia is also a very dramatic child with a full imagination. She frequently used to watch TV shows, and then tell a story about it with her as the main character. It was funny seeing what she would come up with. Well, funny until she told my mom about how she has two moms. She told her that one died, so now she has a new one. No thank you, Cinderella, Snow White, and all other Disney princess movies. I also once overheard Lydia asking Audrey, "Audrey, if you were a robot, you would tell me, right?" After further investigation, I discovered she got the idea from SpongeBob. Audrey has also started to get into TV and will sing along with songs on Barney and imitate some of the things the kids do.
I do see TV shows helping the girls learn and expanding their imaginations. We definitely don't watch TV all day long, and we restrict certain shows, but TV is not evil. I love watching TV. I also love reading, running and biking. I'm OK, and my kids will be too.
No comments:
Post a Comment