(Mommy, we're watching "TV")
Before we had kids, my husband and I watched TV sometimes...not every day, but maybe we would watch the last few episodes of American Idol, or the latest Thing Everyone Watches. We weren't addicts, but it wasn't a huge part of our life. After we had kids, I decided, since I had quit my job to stay at home, that I wanted to do it right. So, amongst other things, I followed the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that children not have any screen time before the age of 2. When A was a newborn, I watched Oprah in the afternoon (hours of my life I will never get back), thinking that she probably couldn't see what was going on. Then, when she was six months old or so and started to pay attention to the screen, I turned it off.
Until one day.
I was putting on A's snowsuit and she was fighting it. Wouldn't put her legs in, wouldn't keep her arms in, being a real pain. And I live in a city where a snowsuit is a necessity for at least 4 months out of the year. So I turned on the TV, just to keep her immobile for the few minutes I needed to get that hateful thing on her. This worked extremely well, and kept on working for a few weeks until she started having a total meltdown when it was time to leave the house, and , more importantly, turn the TV OFF. It had started out well, but I was essentially trading one meltdown for another.
So we got rid of the TV. There wasn't really time for US to watch it anymore, and I wanted to remove any temptation for me to use it as an electronic babysitter. We had a computer we could watch DVDs on, and stream news if it was really important to watch what was happening in the world, but mostly we just spent less time watching stuff.
And we kept it that way. When the kids were 2 and 4 I realized that I was ok with introducing limited screen time, and that it might even be a good idea so that it didn't seem like forbidden fruit; I didn't monitor whether they watched TV at their friends' houses, and I didn't want them to think they were missing out. So, in the winter, we watched a movie or two. Maybe a couple every month, movies that chris and I would enjoy as well, classics like The Sound of Music, or even Disney movies like Toy Story. Because it was a rare occurrence, we could afford to be choosey, although what bothers me about screen time is less the content, and more that it's a completely uncreative and unphysical way to spend one's time.
We never missed the TV; sometimes when they were little it would have been nice to just put something on and have them be immobile for a little bit, but since it wasn't there, it wasn't an option. As they got older they played by themselves more, and they are really good at amusing themselves for hours without my interference. I've come to think of it as an investment that I made that has paid off immensely. Screen time is just not part of their daily lives.
Of course, I have no idea what I'm going to do in the future, when they'll want their own computers and they'll be watching stuff I don't even know about. I'd like to think that maybe they'll be writing and drawing rather than just being an audience, but I know that I won't have any control over that.
But at the very least, I never had to spend one minute listening to Dora.
(if you are not familiar with Louis CK's level of offensiveness, do not watch this)
-Tal
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