TV

Before I had kids, I was soooooooo judgemental when it came to parents letting their kids watch what I considered to be too much TV. I usually would not say anything out loud, but my inside voice was all high and mighty talking about me never letting my kids watch very much TV.

Oh how things change once the reality of having children slaps you silly. I started letting Gabriel watch a half hour of TV just after turning six months old. It quickly became an hour. Then for a long time I tried to only let him watch an hour in the morning and and hour in the evening while I cooked dinner. This is still my idea of enough TV for a three year old. The only time he got more was when he was sick.

Now we just sort of "let the TV time fall as it may" each day. There are those days, you know the ones? Where I don't even have the energy to turn it off. It's just comforting to know that it's on, as if there's another person helping me take care of my kid. At least Gabriel still doesn't watch anything with commercials yet. Just PBS and Nick Jr. And movies. He usually sticks with one movie for two to three weeks, so we get to know them really well before they have to step down to their replacement. Right now we're on Hercules. I could sing you all the songs if you wanted me to. They pop up in my dreams at night.

I just started letting Joel watch, especially after finding the Baby Einstein DVD's we had put up when Gabriel got too old for them. How could I have forgotten them, as many times as we watched them? Gabriel is also enjoying seeing them again, and the two of them together are just so cute. Joel only sticks with a whole half hour if Gabriel is watching with him. But it just gives me a chance to cook dinner without feeling quite so rushed, which is nice.

So my attitude towards TV has softened, and hopefully I'm not ruining my kids' imagination. My favorite thing to watch during the day now is an episode of Jeopardy, to prove to myself that my own brain is not fried. And even though I don't think he understands a word, Gabriel likes to watch with me, proving that to a kid, any TV is good TV.