Feeling like a goody goody
I'm in a email chain, a group of parents who have kids that started kindergarten last year, I guess its a yahoo group, I just get the emails. Anyway, the group is pretty active, a few posts go around every week asking the parents things about school and how to handle things with their kids in regards mostly to school.
The most recent email going around is how to police the TV, and I feel like quite the goody goody about this. Parents are worried that their kids watch WAY too much TV but are thankful that they do (in a way) because it provides time for the parents to do their own thing for an hour or so everyday.
These parents are saying that it's hard to get their 7 year olds to turn off the TV after 3 hours of cartoons an evening! And that their kids will watch TV all day long on the weekends (sadly it not just ONE parent that admits to this!)!
My reaction? Well I want help, so I've been thinking about what to say... but what I have to offer wont be helpful and will only sound goody goody.
Nik watches TV, sure, certainly not everyday, and when she watches TV its 99% educational and WITH the family. We watch "MythBusters", "How its made", "Prototype this", "Nova", "Good Eats"... mostly science stuff, always together (so we talk about what just happened), and really no more than 2 hours per day (and that's weekend mornings ('cause I like sleeping in)).
We don't have issues with TV watching, I also don't get "me time" until after the kids are in bed, but I figure 9-11 is plenty of time to do stuff for myself, and if I want to draw then the kids can draw right along with me - I don't need them to be pre-occupied with the idiot box.
All these parents have free time for themselves but worry for 6-7 year olds. Seems to me that the answer is simple - just turn it off and SPEND TIME with your kid, have them play, have them create, interact with them... if you're spending quality time with them then they wont need the idiot box.
I can't write this tho, not to them, I don't wish to be ostracized from the elite group of parents who have the luxury of staying at home while their kids are off to school... many of them have far more luxury than I have, more time, more money... and yet they can't make time to do what I see as being the obvious solution - what quality of life is it really without interaction and new experience?
There was a Maybelline commercial in the early 90's or late 80's, the tagline was "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" it always stuck with me... I think of that when I say that I don't hate the "have's"... I'm just maybe a little sad that with all that they have they can't just figure out how to turn the TV off and give their children more opportunities to grow and express themselves as opposed to putting them in a room and closing the door behind.
The most recent email going around is how to police the TV, and I feel like quite the goody goody about this. Parents are worried that their kids watch WAY too much TV but are thankful that they do (in a way) because it provides time for the parents to do their own thing for an hour or so everyday.
These parents are saying that it's hard to get their 7 year olds to turn off the TV after 3 hours of cartoons an evening! And that their kids will watch TV all day long on the weekends (sadly it not just ONE parent that admits to this!)!
My reaction? Well I want help, so I've been thinking about what to say... but what I have to offer wont be helpful and will only sound goody goody.
Nik watches TV, sure, certainly not everyday, and when she watches TV its 99% educational and WITH the family. We watch "MythBusters", "How its made", "Prototype this", "Nova", "Good Eats"... mostly science stuff, always together (so we talk about what just happened), and really no more than 2 hours per day (and that's weekend mornings ('cause I like sleeping in)).
We don't have issues with TV watching, I also don't get "me time" until after the kids are in bed, but I figure 9-11 is plenty of time to do stuff for myself, and if I want to draw then the kids can draw right along with me - I don't need them to be pre-occupied with the idiot box.
All these parents have free time for themselves but worry for 6-7 year olds. Seems to me that the answer is simple - just turn it off and SPEND TIME with your kid, have them play, have them create, interact with them... if you're spending quality time with them then they wont need the idiot box.
I can't write this tho, not to them, I don't wish to be ostracized from the elite group of parents who have the luxury of staying at home while their kids are off to school... many of them have far more luxury than I have, more time, more money... and yet they can't make time to do what I see as being the obvious solution - what quality of life is it really without interaction and new experience?
There was a Maybelline commercial in the early 90's or late 80's, the tagline was "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" it always stuck with me... I think of that when I say that I don't hate the "have's"... I'm just maybe a little sad that with all that they have they can't just figure out how to turn the TV off and give their children more opportunities to grow and express themselves as opposed to putting them in a room and closing the door behind.