We spent yesterday afternoon hanging out with Chris' aunt and cousins. One of his cousins has a baby boy who is about to turn 1. During the afternoon, the Disney Channel was on the boob tube, with some kind of animated Mickey show on. The kiddo was entranced. No matter where he crawled or who was holding him or if he was in his play pen, he had to have his head turned towards the TV, which was playing episodes of the show back to back to back to back to back to back to back...
I came home feeling a bit mindnumbed. Chris' aunt, the child's grandmother, posited that perhaps Disney used subliminal messages to keep the attention of the kiddos. I think she's on to something, there.
What kinds of shows did you all watch when you were little? Did you even watch a lot of TV? I didn't. First of all, even though I was raised in the 80s and cable existed, it didn't exist in my rural hometown. We had a TV that had a VHF and a UHF dial. The only time anything kid-like or animated came on network TV was Saturday morning cartoons. PBS did have some shows on in the afternoons that my mother put on for me occasionally, though. So if I was exposed to TV when I was a really little kid, it wasn't anything like Mickey's Crackhouse on the Disney channel. (I could, however, give you the roster of characters and the complete story lines from about 4 different soap operas by the age of five. Which may explain why I now refuse to watch soaps and in fact rarely watch TV in general.)
I'm a little scared with Catherine coming and finding ways to keep her little mind occupied. Granted, throughout the day, it'll be her Dad who determines what's going on - I'll be at work. But at night, when I'm home and Dad is at work, I'm a little scared at the prospect of going stark raving crazy after watching 70 episodes of an animated show in a row, even if it gives her some kind of valuable knowledge or keeps her quiet or captures her attention.
What are all ya'lls thoughts? What shows do your kiddos like? How do you avoid going nuts when watching shows that just make you want to scream but your children adore?
Okay TV is not as evil as people make it seem, but it should be used in moderation and not as a babysitter which many parents do.
ReplyDeleteFor me, TV was in the afternoon and was The Brady Bunch, Little House, and then MASH. Saturday mornings I had to watch Scooby Doo. I was not a TV addict back then.
My sister grew up watching Nickelodeon every morning from 7am - 4pm, basically while I was at school.
For my kids, I must say they never truly got addicted to one show until now, and that is Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs, my kids like educational programs and thinks that are messy, gross, and destructive YEAH!
When my kids were little I tended to have the radio on, or read to them. and no I was not nor am a super parent :)