Things Fall Apart

As many of you know, I try to discourage my children from watching TV, especially when they are under a year old. Awhile back I read an article about the effects of television viewing on young children's brain development, and ever since then my efforts to limit my children's screen time could only be described as CONSTANT VIGILANCE (or possibly OCD, which I would come by quite honestly).

Anyway, with Benjamin this was not too difficult--and not just because he was the only child. Benjamin, as you might remember, was content to sit by the window and watch the lawn mowers parked in the backyard. He spent hours lining up toy cars, digging for bugs outside, or looking at books with his mommy. Benjamin was allowed to watch one show a day, but other than that, the TV was OFF.

 

When Janae came along things became a bit more complicated. I usually had Benjamin watch his show while Janae was napping, but sometimes he'd be finishing a video when she was awake, and once in a while she caught a glimpse of what was on. Still, I was careful not to let her sit and watch TV until she was one.

 

Now that Janae is a little older, she really loves her shows--especially her princess and Barbie movies. Benjamin, who is now in kindergarten and realizing that boys don't normally watch princess and Barbie movies (I knew I never should have entrusted him to the public system!), usually prefers more adventure-type programs. So reluctantly I changed my rule from one show a day to two (one each).

This means that our TV is on--with interesting, colorful, often musical, child-entrancing programming--for as many as 2-3 hours a day. Alaina, of course, has noticed this. Whenever the TV is on, she tries to watch it, straining to turn towards the television from wherever she is in the room. She opens her eyes wide, tilts her head, and strains her neck--usually in vain, but once in a while she gets to watch a few minutes.

The other day, out of the blue, Janae announced that she would be picking Teletubbies as her show (is it possible that Alaina planted this idea using some kind of Jedi mind trick she'd picked up during the few minutes of Star Wars Jason had let her see?). As I was changing Alaina's diaper, she turned towards the TV and lifted her head higher than ever before.

Since Alaina rarely shows any interest in tummy time, and has been a little lacking in muscle development (compared to her siblings), I let her lie on her tummy and lift her neck to watch a few minutes of this very baby-oriented show.

 

Than finally on Friday, things absolutely fell apart for me and my anti-TV crusade. Jason and I had taken the kids to Science World and were getting settled in to watch Beavers on the enormous Omnimax screen. Alaina was by my side, sleeping peacefully in her carseat. Or so it seemed.

As soon as the film began, Alaina stirred. As I picked her up, planning to quickly nurse her back to sleep, she turned towards the screen (it was, after all, kind of hard to miss), her eyes open about as wide as a human being's eyes are capable of opening.

Needless to say, she watched Beavers in its entirety--and she LOVED it!

 

So, the question is, what should I do now? Allow Alaina to pick one show a day, too? Eliminate my TV rules altogether? Acknowledge that TV has won? Or just carry on, trying to forget that this little Omnimax incident ever happened?

I guess I might be able to forget--I just don't think Alaina ever will :) (You'd know what I mean if you'd seen her face while she was looking at that big screen! I think she'll always have a soft spot for beavers. . . .)