Our kids don't watch TV.
It hasn't always been this way though. When Jacob was little (probably from about 18 months+) he used to watch at least an hour of TV each night. It would get to about 4.30 and he would be tired and grumpy (by this stage he'd dropped his day sleep!) and I would just be wanting a break from it all. So the TV went on. He was always one of those kids that would quite happily sit in front of the TV and watch. It was never anything terribly bad. Just playschool type shows.
It wasn't until he was a bit older that I started reading and hearing about how it was better for young children not to watch TV. By that stage I had Esme. She was also completely different to Jacob in that she doesn't like to sit still so if I put the TV on wanting a break from the kids she would still be coming over to me wanting my attention. So I gave up on that idea. For a while I would still use the TV occasionally, usually when I was at the end of my tether with the kids.
But then I realised that there were other, better, ways to calm myself and the kids down when we'd all had enough of each other! Often just making a complete change of activity would help; like taking all the cushions off the couch and putting a blanket on top of it to make a mountain or, simply, sitting down on the bean bag with the kids and some books.
And so our TV free journey began ;) I can't say I miss it at all. And I love that the kids are not caught up in all the 'merchandising' that goes with TV. I'm hoping to keep it this way as long as I can! I know the kids will be subject to outside influences as they grow up (although hoping to somewhat alleviate this by sending them through Steiner education ;)) but for now this is our choice.
Now, I just wish we could do something about the adults in the house watching TV ;)
1 comment:
I wish I could be like this! TV drives me mad! We limit to around 1 hour max per day although Kyan would probably watch more, but it does sem to stop the frighting briefly and it's a bit of a bribe for me. I totally agree with the stat's Ivé read some myself and agree 100%. Oddly enough as adults we actually rarely watch it, maybe 3 hours per week, but I do use the computer.....LOL.
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