According to this article on MSNBC, 90% of US kids under the age of two are watching TV or videos. 

Guilty as charged. We swore we’d never do it but…Both Peter and I have put Ben in the Pack n’ Play while we get dinner ready, throw a load of laundry in, unload the dishwasher, whatever. It’s easy to turn on PBS for background entertainment while we do our household business. We try to narrate what’s on the screen -” Hey look at that ball, see those birds.” But what we realized is - he’d much rather play with trains or look at board books than watch Elmo or that surfer dude sloth on Big Big World. So the TV has been turned off.

TV just isn’t interesting to him right now. (Although he loves the remote control and the power it wields.) As new parents we are bombarded with ads for Baby Einstein.  And you may worry - “is my child going to be cognitively behind if he doesn’t get his Baby Mozart with paintings of Van Gogh’s swirling around?”  

Plus I’m a HUGE supporter of  the mother of all educational television, Sesame Street. I have propped him in my lap to watch our new box set of Sesame Street Old School. Vintage episodes from Sesame’s early years. When we first watched it he was mesmerized by Big Bird. But then when we’d settle in for some good old Kermit and Bert and Ernie skits - he’d get squirmy and go play with some blocks. What I realized was I was the one who wanted to watch Sesame Street and feel nostalgic. I wanted to share something I loved with him. But he has his own agenda. Trains. Blocks. More trains.

“Parents are getting the message loud and clear from marketers of TV and videos that this is good for their kids. That it will help their brain development … None of this stuff has ever been proven.”  

(I still support and know I learned so much from Sesame Street, one of the most researched children’s shows ever. But I don’t believe I started really watching until I was 3 years old.)

“The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that children in the United States watch about four hours of television every day. They recommend that children under age 2 should not watch any and older children should watch no more than 2 hours a day of quality programming.” 

How do you handle TV time in your household?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 8:53 am and is filed under Family Life, Main, Related Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.