When we were kids we would wake up early Saturday morning, head for the kitchen cupboard, pour ourselves a large bowl of cereal and sit in front of the TV for Saturday morning cartoons after a week long wait. Sure we had stuff after school, Commander Tom and after school specials. At lunchtime we would always watch the Flintstones but the rest of the time we would play. Now a day there is 24 hour a day channels just for kids.
If I hear the Dora the Explorer song one more time, even worse if I have to see High School Musical again I think my head might explode. From Hanna Montana to SpongeBob kids can become addicted to television and so can we. And how come I’ve seen so many of the same episodes my kids say I have never seen, because they haven’t been on before.
Getting dinner ready or speaking on the phone is way easier when your child is sucked into TV land. There are no more questions being repeated 20 times while you glare at them and eventually say, “Can’t you see I’m on the phone?!” Two hours can go by and you wonder why they are so quiet only to realize they have fallen asleep in front of the TV way to close to dinnertime and now you know they will never go to bed on time because of the nap you didn’t want them to have in the first place. (Wow, that was a long sentence)
Finding balance with kids and TV is hard. We as parents are so strapped for time and trying to get everything done sometimes the TV becomes the babysitter. When we were kids our parents would send us out to play, we never do that now without going with them so our parents had way more time to themselves. I never want to be that parent that sensors my kids but helping them find balance like putting a cap on the amount of time they can watch and then letting them chose what they want is a good start…. Or helping the chose like “Hey want to watch , So you Think You Can Dance?”
