My love/hate relationship with the TV

Well, I have found that TV drives me crazy and makes me happy at the same time.  Before I had kids, I watched whatever and didn’t think a thing about it.  The amount, the content, the length whatever….it didn’t bother me or concern me.  I used to have the TV on all day, or most of the day, and watch off and on, but mostly I like the noise, and the fact that I was bored (remember, this is BEFORE kids).  Now, I have a new appreciation for TV.  Right now, newt is watching Dora the Explorer and he is quiet and I have a few mins to surf and catch up on email.  This would be the “love” part.  The “hate” part is that as soon as I turn off the TV, said child will then follow me around for the rest of the day because he doesn’t know what to do with himself!  I HAVE to tell him what to do!!  ALL DAY LONG!!!!  He has creativity in him, he will play by himself sometimes without being told what to do….but he mostly just does nothing.  So, after a few hours of no TV and we have cleaned and eaten and changed the baby and the laundry….you know what…the TV comes back on.   And again….I, ugh…i dunno. 

I have this romantic vision of what a no TV child looks like:  he plays quietly by himself for hours on end coming up with game after game, imaginary worlds where dinosaurs and puppies are friends and play alongside each other on the couch.  Now, I realize this is a total fantasy and that this child likely doesn’t exist! 

ugh, what am i trying to say. 

I guess, I’m tired of worrying about the incessant violence I see on TV and how it is polluting my child’s mind in ways I will never know.  I want him to play nice, and not hit or push or kick, many of these things are routinely on cartoons.  I want him to stay innocent and I know that is never going to happen. 

I am keenly aware of the shotguns and axes and bombs and such on cartoons…and this is just on Tom and Jerry!!  Think about what Wile E Coyote did to the Roadrunner!!!  I mean, how did my mom ever let me watch this stuff?

It makes me wonder about that little 8 year old boy who shot his dad and his dad’s friend.  He did it on purpose, but could he have possible understood the consequences such actions would cause?  Did he really understand what would happen?  Did he think his dad and friend would just get up again and be magically normal (like Tom).   My friend and her family, which includes a 4 year old boy and a 2 year old girl, routinely watch R rated movies, like Batman The Dark Knight.  Would you let your 4 year old watch that?  I haven’t even seen it, but it being R rated concerns me.  His daddy says it will make him tough.  Either that, or he will have no empathy because he has seen to much violence in his short, little life.  Children are shown these images all the time and do we ever stop to think if this might be good or not?  I doubt it. 

I was at the park two weeks ago and a little boy came up to me and said he was going to see “Twilight” the movie.  It’s about good vampires and bad vampires, he said.  He was only 4.  (shakes head sadly)

I wonder what video games like Grand Theft Auto 4 are doing to our youth. 

I wonder if it makes a difference, or am I just being silly and an alarmist?  I mean, I grew up with these same images, and I am alright, right???  Of course, I only watched a small amount of TV, and it was way different than it is now, ya know. 

All I know is, I limit TV during the day.  Somedays are better than others….somedays like today are not so good (it’s 45 degrees outside and I am not leaving unless I have to, so…we have to have some entertainment)

It’s a hard habit to break….