We've been tv free since before we got married. We do have Netflix (the cheapest 2 movies per month/no internet viewing plan), but we maybe watch a movie as a family once a month and I'll watch a movie during Ladybug's naps sometimes. When I've been very tired (I have chronic fatigue), I've let Ladybug watch a cartoon: this has happened maybe 3 or 4 times in her entire life, but the cartoons have always been in Russian so they are not your standard "Saturday morning" fare.
But, Ladybug stays with my mother three mornings a week and starting from age 1 (I convinced my mother to hold off until then) always watches a cartoon with her cousins while she's there. Sometimes they are Russian cartoons (well, old Soviet) which I'm fine with since that helps her language skills, but more and more often for some odd reason my mom turns on Disney type stuff. And lately, she's been asking me to show her cartoons on the computer.
That's not the problem: I always say 'no' and I distract her with something else. My concern now is that her life is so different from her cousins and that as time goes on she'll be thinking that she's missing out on things and end up nagging more and more for things that are not within our values. For example, her cousins are in your typical academic preschool, she'll be homeschooled; they play with electronic toys, we don't have them at all; they get "name brand" and "character" items, we don't even allow her to have anything that says "princess" on it, let alone Dora, Cinderella or whatever, etc etc etc.
DH's response is "too bad," we're the parents and she'll learn that there are differences between our household and my sister's. But, I was very rebellious as a kid and I rather feel that the reason I am so strict about all the "no's" in our household is partly a response to the hedonistic materialism & consumerism that I grew up with. I'd hate for our kids to grow up and rebel against us because they were jealous of the 'normal' tv filled life their cousins had.
How do you deal with this? It won't be possible for us to move further away from my family and for me to quit my job that requires my mother watching Ladybug for at least a couple of years if not longer.
But, Ladybug stays with my mother three mornings a week and starting from age 1 (I convinced my mother to hold off until then) always watches a cartoon with her cousins while she's there. Sometimes they are Russian cartoons (well, old Soviet) which I'm fine with since that helps her language skills, but more and more often for some odd reason my mom turns on Disney type stuff. And lately, she's been asking me to show her cartoons on the computer.
That's not the problem: I always say 'no' and I distract her with something else. My concern now is that her life is so different from her cousins and that as time goes on she'll be thinking that she's missing out on things and end up nagging more and more for things that are not within our values. For example, her cousins are in your typical academic preschool, she'll be homeschooled; they play with electronic toys, we don't have them at all; they get "name brand" and "character" items, we don't even allow her to have anything that says "princess" on it, let alone Dora, Cinderella or whatever, etc etc etc.
DH's response is "too bad," we're the parents and she'll learn that there are differences between our household and my sister's. But, I was very rebellious as a kid and I rather feel that the reason I am so strict about all the "no's" in our household is partly a response to the hedonistic materialism & consumerism that I grew up with. I'd hate for our kids to grow up and rebel against us because they were jealous of the 'normal' tv filled life their cousins had.
How do you deal with this? It won't be possible for us to move further away from my family and for me to quit my job that requires my mother watching Ladybug for at least a couple of years if not longer.
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