westwood

Do you feel that television has a possitive affect on your child?

FooserX

It probably depends on what they are watching.

Pros:

- A good reward for good behavior. Threaten to take it away, and child will behave.
- Educational. Cartoons like Dora, Little Einsteins, etc make it enjoyable for kids to learn new ideas and fundamentals.
- A nice escape. Where else are kids going to see Batman and Spiderman...or ninja turtles? That's fun and let's them use their imagination.

Cons:
- Should not be a babysitter.
- Some parents let their kids watch totally inappropriate things.
- Addictive
- Kids become exposed to things they may not be ready for. (not to mention new candies and snacks that they now "have to have" because of commercials)

Tom

I also think it can be good and bad. Let kids watch crap and who knows. On the other hand it provides a lot of information (in the sensory respect) for a kid to take in which I think can be good.

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Kaytee

same as pp

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Trina

With limited viewing of kid appropriate and educational shows... Yes.

captainmal2

Wow - you stole the words right out of my keyboard. I agree - television isn't the root of all evil, but like with most things in life, too much of it can be bad. To keep a child's mind, not to mention their body, active is very important. We should give our kids credit also - most of them get bored with TV after awhile and will move on to something else without a parent to make them.

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hannah's mommy

I absolutely agree with the previous posters.

Teresa

Yep, I agree with the others.....it all depends on what they watch, how long they watch, etc.

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Anne Glamore

My boys are 11, 9 and 9 (yes twins, no, not identical, yes, hands full, etc etc) and they watched a few DVD's when they were very little- say 1-3. After that, we severely curtailed TV until everyone was reading well. We've had years where there's no TV except for special events (Tour De France, American Idol- your list probably differs!) and some where we gave them an hour on the weekends.

Recently we've upped their chores, so we gave them back in 30 minutes of TV OR computer each day, because they don't have video games or Xbox, etc, and we realized we didn't have much to take away if they didn't perform.

We stress History, Discovery channels, and there are some shows where they've learned a lot.

This might read harsher than it is, or maybe we just run a tight ship. All I know is that it worked for us as long as I kept plenty of legoes around!

FooserX

>>>We stress History, Discovery channels, and there are some shows where they've learned a lot. This might read harsher than it is, or maybe we just run a tight ship


I wouldn't say it's harsh...but it's more extreme than what I want from my child. There were times where I wanted to limit TV and such to minimal time, and only educational...but really...I like seeing my son happy and being a kid. I like letting him watch cartoons on a weekend morning...or a kids movie here and there.

Kids can only be kids for so long, and I don't want to rob my son of childhood just because I want to push educational stuff on him 24-7. We do study and read a lot (I've already homeschooled him for everything Kindergarden will expect) but I still think kids deserve some kid time to do with as they please.

My son will watch about an hour max before he gets bored and wants to do something else. I think if I were to really limit it strictly, he'd feel the need to watch more because it's something he can't do freely.