What am I afraid of?

[wallacesmum]

I used to be really hooked on the concept of "tv-free." There are specific aesthetic and intellectual things that bug me about tv, which is why I don't watch it, but I got into thinking that "tv-free" was a superior way to be for a while after ds was born.

More recently, that judgment let go of me when I analyzed it and decided that it wasn't really true for everyone and that I didn't like feeling such a negative feeling about something that so many people I care about do. My thinking is really shifting to being okay with tv, in other people's lives.

We still don't have one and don't want one. However, ds is really into YouTubes suddenly (we started looking things up on the computer when he asked about stuff, and that led to YouTubes, and he really liked them), and is requesting them. I feel like he is spending kind of a lot of time watching them (although he is still spending lots of time doing completely different stuff, too, and he will ask me to turn them off when he's done), and I'm not resisting it, but it bugs me. (He is 26 months)

I am trying to figure out why? Really, I want to know what bugs YOU about it, meaning, why wouldn't (or would) YOU be comfortable with this? I am hoping that other people's thoughts will help me understand my own.

[zinemama]

My kids 5 and 8) would love to watch YouTube. Heck, I love it, myself! But we don't, for one simple reason: slippery slope. Now, I know the slope isn't that slippery for some folks, but I know my kids and I knew how slick that slope is.

Once we started, they would want to watch it all the time. The whining. The coaxing. The temptation on my part to just let them sit there. I don't want to deal with that, and I also don't want them to have access to the internet at this age. So we don't.

My kids get to play a couple of computer games on Sundays. And on Sunday night we watch a movie after baths. (We just started this two weeks ago, and it's going well). That's the amount of screen time we're comfortable with. I'd just rather they spent the rest of their time playing or reading.

I don't really think about other people's tv-watching habits or computer time. People do what's best for their families and everyone has to figure out what that is.

[wallacesmum]

Hmm, I wonder how things will look when he is older? These days he loses interest after a few videos, but then, he can't cue them up himself!