Introductions - Page 5

[gagin37]

: So glad to have found other tv free families! I had started to think there weren't any out there! We do own a tv set, and a small collection of DVDs. Right now I have an antenna hooked up for PBS, but I only turn it on about once a month to watch the news, or the BBC sitcoms. It's really important to raise my child in an environment free of commercial television.

[Breeder]

So happy that the forum is here!

I'm a WOH mama and full time college student (this semester doing online classes to be with the itty bitty). My DH WOH opposite my shift so we don't have to pay for childcare, he also attends school full time as a grad student. We have an amazing six-year-old son and a beautiful 11 wk old son.

Our DS has been tv-free for the past 3 years, we keep the tv off while he is awake. Before that he only watched PBS. DH and I are addicted but we limit our consumption to nighttime after the kiddos are in bed. (DS2 is thankfully a wonderful sleeper and goes down by 9pm every night...I realize how lucky I am.

We are complete freaks of nature to our families, but they are getting used to us (along with the cding, natural foods, gentle discipline - we are just fruit bats.)

[KBecks]

I'm Karen, I have two sons, ages almost 4 and 2 and I'm expecting our third boy. We watch television but I want to minimize our TV use and spend more time playing, adventuring and reading. TV (and computer time) has become more of a habit in our house than I would like.

[Phoenix_Rising]

Hi! When I got pregnant DP and I talked about the importance of no TV when kiddo was young. DP's mom thought we were being really weird and bought every Disney movie known to mankind and tried to convince us we were being unreasonable. We outlined our reasons for her and basically told her that it was okay if she didn't agree with us, but it was our decision to make. After that conversation she didn't argue about it anymore.
Fast forward until now - DS will be 3 in November - and DS has only seen TV a handful of times - once at grandma's house for about 20 minutes, once at home for about 10 minutes and at a friend's house for about 10 minutes. He gets totally drawn in while the TV is on - slack jaw and everything. When it goes off he is a wild child (even more so than normal) for awhile. Not something I want to foster, to say the least (and that isn't even taking into consideration all of the other reasons we don't want him to watch)!
As for me and DP, we don't have a TV at all but we have Netflix and watch an average of three movies a month. At times I'd like to do away with that all together but when I just want to veg out I really enjoy it :

[SuperCrunchyMomto7]

Hi all! I am Sunshine (just joined today!) and we have been TV Free for the last 9 years. We decided to get rid of it when our oldest was a baby. One of the best decisions we ever made! Neither my partner nor I miss it, and it gives us more time to do natural things like playing in the woods and hunting for frogs!

[July]

We've been TV-free for about 3 years, but we do watch movies from netflix. It's very natural for us, as we both like having that part of our lives contained to an hour or so once or twice a week. I think we'll just keep things the same once kids come along.

[HidaShara]

Hi! I'm Charlotte, and my first child, DD Maggie, was just born two months ago.

I was raised in a TV-limited household (when I was a kid, I was only allowed to watch 1h of TV a week, which I had to schedule and plan for ahead of time) and hope to do the same with DD, but I feel today's world is contains a lot more intrusive media than the one I grew up in. It's not just a matter of the TV, but also video games, computers, pdas, cell phones, and who knows what. I don't have a problem with any of these things individually, but I don't want to raise DD in an overstimulated environment where distracting devices are used without a second thought.

We have a television in the house, but we don't get any channels. We use it exclusively for movies and video games. But DH is really addicted to video games, and DD is already (at two months!) enthralled by the screen when daddy is playing. So for us a big challenge will be reducing our own computer/screen use and setting a good example for the kids.

Nice to meet you all!!!

[2mama]

I am mama to 3 wonderful kiddos, wife to the most wonderful man on earth, and adopted mama to a furry dog and purry cat!!

We love being tv free and have been so for almost 5 years!! I don't know how I ever had time to watch tv.. I think of my life as full and inviting. We are always on a quest and doing something.

[Mandala126]

Hi,
I'm a mama to my sweet little girl and wife to my wonderful man. We have another LO joining us in Nov. We've been TV free for about two years, not as long as some of you but, boy, what a difference. I'm really proud of DH for going along with this since he was addicted to TV (he was brought up in front of it, basically). We do have a TV set for movies only.
TV-free is soooo liberating!!:

[jrabbit]

Mama to two and a half kids. We watch tv, and it's mainly a babysitter, I admit. I need my morning sleep or peace-time, so that's when it's on. I also suffer from insomnia, and I watch tv in the middle of the night.

Our relatives and friends think we are odd, though, because we don't approve of most of the mainstream kids' stuff on tv/movies. I do NOT like Disney, Hanna Montana, Barbie, and most of the popular stuff. We don't take them to the movies, and they don't get to watch just whatever they want on tv. (they have gone to a few movies with grandparents, so far ok) When they are at nana's house, the tv is ALWAYS on, and it's almost always on stuff we don't like, unfortunately. Sometimes, we just have to accept things that aren't ideal.

We use Tivo, and they only watch what WE say is ok. They are not allowed to watch commercials. My oldest now knows how to use the remote, and she can forward through them on her own. Before that, the rule was when the show was over, they had to turn the tv off. I think that they have done pretty good with it - if tv becomes an issue, then it's banned for a few weeks, and everything goes back to normal. They also don't sit still for tv, but they PLAY while the tv is on - they aren't glued to the tv like some kids we know. If they did that, I'd be more concerned.

I find the other media to be more disturbing than controlled tv. We do not allow the video games, handheld computers, portable dvd players, etc.

--janis

[jaam]

Hi! I'm Jackie. I made a sort of intro thread of my own before noticing this one. Oops. Anyway, I grew up tv-free and am on the way back to becoming tv-free again with my own children. Dh and I rent movies occasionally but that's it.

[MommyLady]

I just found this forum and am so excited! We gave our only TV away 2 years ago, and it's really changed our lives. I'm a SAHM, and was starting to get sucked into watching the TV all day long. When my daughter was just over a year, she really started paying attention to it, so we got rid of it. The kids are exposed to TV occasionally at friends and relatives houses, but not on a daily basis. Sometimes I think we'll want a TV when the kids are older, but worry that we'll get hooked. Right now, I'm loving life without the TV.

[Gracefruit]

How neat to find this thread! I grew up cable free and my parents were not at all keen on allowing my sister & I to watch television. We watched an hour or two together as a family on the weekends, some special moves together during the holidays, and this was it. We all were/are quite the bookworms instead of tv buffs. :

My husband and I went tv-free back when we first got married. At first we just gave up cable, but then realized one day that we never watched the television at all, so we got rid of the set "uglyfying" our living room and replaced the television with yet another beautiful bookshelf that was soon full of books and board games. Our daughter is being raised sans television, electronic toys, or computer time at home. She has played with a few such toys at other homes and seen bits of television, but has never been all that enthused about such entertainment.

[mumFu]

TV Free Intro

Our goal at the start was to keep our son away from TV for the first 2 years. He just turned 2, and we have no plans to introduce TV anytime soon, though we do get on the internet with him occasionally. Like today he asked me if he could see the "choo-choo cars" and I searched google for steam engine videos, most of which were about 1 minute long, and we watched a few of those.

Overall, my main issue with TV, as others have so well stated, is that it's commercial advertising. I don't want soulless corporations having direct access to my son. So, like others, we avoid character toys and try to focus instead on imaginative, creative play. We've read studies that show that even educational programming on PBS is shown to make children more receptive to commercial advertising (commercial jingles, etc.) and that watching television can be harmful to brain development in certain ways. What I know, is that the few times I've let Kai watch TV, it feels wrong to me. He seems to lose his spark and get too sucked in, and my instincts kick in and tell me he's too young to process that stimulus in a way that's healthy and balanced. I think it's important to tune into him and trust what feels right, and mistrust what feels wrong.

Kai likes to read a lot and will spend lots of time with books. We go to the library a lot and when he wants to just sit back and relax, he'll bring a book and snuggle up and not try to get involved with the reading. He has different reading moods, and we follow his lead.

Admittedly, not having the TV to babysit him, really makes it tougher for me to cook in the kitchen or take important phone calls. Some days I feel frazzled and frustrated like I'm swimming through tar, but most days we find a rhythm and it's very doable.

I'd love to find other parents in Portland that are thoughtful about monitoring the effects of media on their kids, and limiting TV.