Wednesday, February 01, 2006

About Television

Sometimes when you try something scary and unknown, the reults can be terrific. We didn't let Lucy watch tv at all until she was one. If it was on when she was awake, we would make sure she was facing the other direction. At one, we let her watch Sesame Street each morning, and that was it.

Then she met Dora. The Children's Museum of Manhattan has a Dora exhibit that is remarkably engaging. Costumes, adventure slides, animals to drive in the rescue truck, they have it all. Once she met Dora she wanted to read her books, and watch her on tv, and watch anything else that might be on tv. Her television obsession was growing, despite our best efforts to restrict her viewing to a reasonable amount.

One, night, around her second birthday, she woke up at 2 am screaming, "I want to watch tv!" As I sat on the living room floor with her, trying to remain calm and resolute in the face of her irrational, but heartfelt pleas, my mom came out and asked, "Is it really worth the tears?" And you know, it wasn't. She watched Dora, and she watched Sesame Street, and whatever else she wanted that I could stand. My only television restriction was not during dinner. We had a few months of VERY HEAVY television use.

The result? In the past 2 weeks, she watched ten minutes total of television. She rarely asks for it. When she does, she quickly gets her fill and moves on to another activity.

She's just done with it, and I am glad.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm quite sure she has moved away from tv because you offer so many other interesting options: art materials, many books, museum trips and cooking adventures. As a teacher, I see far too many children for whom tv is their life.