TV-Day 4

Were you wondering how I did today?

Well, as it's so late, I will keep it brief.

I did pretty well, with a few hiccups here and there.

But the thing that struck me as blog worthy was the moment when I realized I was reading about limiting television time in my new  parenting text book while sitting next to my daughter who was watching television.

I'll admit it, it's easy to let kids watch too much TV.  At the same time, I'm not convinced that some thoughtful television choices will have a negative impact on my kids.

I do not think my kids watch too much TV.  I do think that academics who suggest television is the devil, are obviously not presently parents of young children.

There is a time and a place for TV and it's usually when it's time to calm down and mellow out a bit (like while I'm cleaning up from the kids dinner, or making some meal or other).  Sometimes it's better to have them engaged in TV than fighting with each other (or me) or destroying our house because they are over stimulated.

While many may suggest that kids aren't learning from all this children's programming, I'd like to disagree.

The kids learn about being a good person (morals and values) from the Berenstain Bears: about art, music and geography from the Little Einsteins: spelling from Super Why, various goodies from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Spanish from Dora and Diego, and general goodness (and Spanish) from Handy Manny (who I have a secret crush on).

In an ideal world, we probably wouldn't have our little kids sitting in front of a television, but in the real world, it's just not fair to ask us to shelter them from small doses of thoughtful television programing.  Sometimes we just need a break, because we as parents aren't perfect either. 

I know a lot of people who grew up watching much less educational "children's programming," and we turned out OK.  So for now, I am going to embrace the patience and positivity that 24 minutes of television can bring my kids and I.