tell me I haven't blown it!

[anyalily]

I have a 5 mo daughter. We have been watching non-commercial tv around her from the get-go,. against my better judgment. We don't have cable so it is basically taped series and movies. It has been on up to a few hours a day but usually no more than an hour.

The worst thing is that we often watch something while eating meals. I know - really bad.

So, I don't need to be told how bad these things are - my intuition says it is not good. I am ready to turn it off.

My question is: have I already harmed my daughter by having it on? I am usually pretty good about turning it off when she needs my attention and still talking with her and holding her, but I am concerned I have not been as interactive as I could have.

Fortunately, she doesn't really watch it. She will look at it when it first turns on and then gets distracted by everything else in the room.

I guess I am looking for a little encouragement that stopping now will be better than nothing.

Thanks!

[marie1080]

It is definitely not too late! I know there are many many people who would be thrilled if they could go back to 5 months old and make different decisions about their television viewing.

If you are looking for some good motivation to turn off the TV and keep it off, I recommend the book "Plug in Drug." A lot of libraries have it.

You will not regret your decision. Getting rid of TV has been one of the best decisions DH and I have ever made for our family:

[bluebirdiemama]

We did the same thing with DS, finally turning the TV off for the most part around age... 8 months or so. DH still watches once in a while but DS has no interest. my mil has hers on all day for day care, and when he's over there, no interest. I even bought him a movie a while back and stuck it in for him and he hardly looked at it.
Maybe he sees how much less interactive we are when we watch it and just thinks it's a pain in the butt? I hope it lasts