[mLeroux]

Hello all,

I wanted to ask the moms out there who never regulated TV time for their kids when they were younger how do they feel about it today? Would you have changed the way you went about it? or would you do it all the same?

We dont have the tv on much around here. DH and I dont at all (dh will see a game or two when he can but thats it) and we dont have cable. My girls like to see some PBS from time to time but when they do they seem to sit there for hours before they turn it off. MY eldest (5 years) will just say "Ok thats it I think Ive had enough now, can we read a book?" So I dont know if to regulate it or just go with the flow.

TIA
Michelle

 

[UnschoolnMa]

We do not regulate TV at all, in either content or how much of it they watch. We encourage them to watch what they feel comfortable and good about, and they know that a lifetime of sitting on your fanny watching tv isn't a healthy one. I wouldn't change how we've done it a bit. Everyone has a their different personality with tv viewing. My daughter goes through spurts where she really enjoys watching movies and cartoons alot, but generally she cares the least for the tv. My son has many programs that he really enjoys. My husband has less time for it but he *loves* to watch movies lol. We have cable.

We do not think that spending time watching tv (or using the computer, another thing we do not regulate) is any less of a good thing than reading a book, or riding a bike. Our family feels that all of these are perfectly fine to do. We encourage the kids to think about what is healthy, what is safe, and what is good for them. It wouldn't be healthy to only watch tv and refuse to do anything else, just as it wouldn't be healthy to only ride your bike and refuse to do anything else. We have encouraged the kids to know their own needs, and to balance it accordingly. Of course, we model that behavior too.

We just can't imagine regulating it for them, when they are fullly capable of regulating it on their own. I do not always like the programs they choose, but they don't always like the programs I choose.. so it's really a so-whatter. Kristi

 

[Alkenny]

We never regulated tv time when our kids were smaller, and now they hardly watch it at all. DD doesn't watch ANY tv (save American Idol when it was on, but I think that was more of a "around the water cooler" at school the next day thing), and my older DS watches MAYBE a half an hour before he conks out in the evenings. They're really well-rounded kids...band and youth group for DD, all different sports for DS...both at the tops of their classes in PS (I homeschooled when they were younger)...and as a matter of fact aren't even watching tv right now. They just biked to the library's summer program.

 

[sohj]

I can't answer this in the first person, only from observation.

My husband grew up in a family with no regulations on TV time. He is the youngest of four. When he read Marie Winn's The Plug-In Drug , he found her observations interesting, especially that there often seems to be one "susceptible" kid in the family who sets the tv-watching pace for the rest of them.

The susceptible one was his oldest brother. As the oldest was also the one who did babysitting for the youngest ones when he was a teen, they all kind of got "infected".

My husband feels he watched waaaaaay too much TV and refuses to have it in the house (I grew up without one and never got the habit, nor ever saw the allure and resent the idea of paying to have advertisers come into my home, so I have no problem with this.)

He said that he basically watched TV for 4 years straight when he wasn't in school or sleeping...until his parents noticed that he was gaining a lot of weight that wasn't baby fat and got him into Pop Warner football.

So, I guess that was regulating it, in a way.

Then, later, when a teen he had a new group of friends and was involved with a lot of stuff that kept him away from the TV for at least a few hours a day. But, he said that until he was 16, he probably watched at least 2 hours a day. That's a lot in my books.

 

[PikkuMyy]

Well, I didn't even have a television set as a child and I am eternally greatful to my parents for that. I spent so much time doing lots of imaginative things and reading, and getting lots of exercise.

I will regulate it in that we don't have cable now, nor will we when we have children. We won't have an antenna either. They can watch dvds and videos but not more than that.