Autumn 2011 - Mandy Mazliah

Raising children
TV and children: Where do you draw the line?
Sarah Hunt asks how much
is OK…
I think it’s fair to say that we all
have a view about TV and children.
We probably all have friends who
we think let their children watch
too much TV or that they watch
inappropriate stuff. We probably
have an on-going internal debate
about how much is too much is
and so it goes on. However, for
the vast majority of us TV is a
huge part of life today and having
children just means we have to
have another view on it. When I
was a child there was Playschool
at 11am then nothing until 4pm.
There was no video and no DVDs.
We seemed to survive. However,
life has changed and TV is now
a 24/7 activity for adults and
children.
Before I had kids this wasn’t
something I thought about. We’ve
never had a TV in our bedroom
and we have always said that we
won’t allow our children to have
TV in their bedrooms. However,
that’s where the thinking ended.
Ben arrived 7 years ago and I still
didn’t think about it. I didn’t see the
need to stick him in front of it when
he was a baby and it wasn’t until
he was a toddler that TV became
part of his life. However, we didn’t
have digital or satellite and so only
had Milkshake in the mornings (if
we had time) and videos to watch.
This did allow us to monitor very
closely what he was watching.
The usual suspects come to
mind – Thomas the Tank, Bob the
Builder etc.
Now, however, TV has become
more challenging. First of all we
got Sky TV and all of sudden we
had 24/7 kids TV available. Again it
could be monitored but like others
have found, as soon as your little
on becomes adept in the workings
of the remote control (or the
buttons on the machine if you hide
it) it all gets more difficult.
Ben is now seven, Toby five and
Ellen two. We also live in the US
now where the quality of the TV is
TERRIBLE. There is no Cbeebies
or anything remotely similar. I find
them watching absolute rubbish,
which I switch off and ban. My
youngest hasn’t had the joy of
some of the
great stuff the
boys had but
she does get
some Dora,
Backyardigans
etc. I like these
because they
have morals and
are usually about
helping people,
sharing etc.
In terms of how
much should
they watch –
how long is a bit
of string? Some
days they watch
none. Others
(usually at the
weekend) they
watch a lot –
probably too
much. However,
they have learnt
loads from the TV and I also think
some of the silly cartoons like Tom
& Jerry and Spongebob give them
some light relief after school.
The key about TV is that everyone
does have a different view and
we all handle it slightly differently.
My husband feels that the boys
watch too much, but he isn’t the
one trying to cook dinner, do
the washing, tidy the house etc
etc. For us, I think total screen
time is a bigger issue. The boys
have Nintendos and love being
on the computer. Where does it
end? There is no right or wrong
answers. Let us know what you
think….
Newsletter Winter 9