TV and Sesame Street

Last night on the news, they were talking about the new Sesame Street DVD's and the controversy surrounding them. I have always disliked Seasme Street (read the book Endangered Minds to find out why - it is a MUST read for every parent whether they homeschool or not).

So anyways, the news says that the new DVD's are aimed at chidlren 6 MONTHS (not years MONTHS) and older. They go on to say that the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against TV viewing for children under 2.

After they announce that, the spokesperson for Seasme Street gets 1 1/2 minutes of news air time to talk about how unrealistic it is for children under 2 to not watch TV, and that all their studies show that children under two years are watching at least 2 hours of TV a day and that Seasme Street is just trying to provide something educational for those ages. And how important it is for caregivers and parents to watch the DVD's with the children.

Now how realistic is THAT? I am sure most parents (and especially caregivers) put on those DVD's to babysit the children rather than to spend wholesome time together.

It saddens me that an association as important as the AAP gets 2 seconds worth of mentioned airtime (they did not even get interviewed), while Sesame Street gets almost 2 minutes worth of air time including an interview to convience parents to let their children watch not only their DVD's but TV in general.

It's no wonder that I get flamed from other parents who allow their children to watch TV, or from family who sees nothing wrong with allowing children to watch lots of hours of TV ("after all" Mom says "we let you watch lots of TV and look how well you turend out"). The media is pushing it as something that is not only normal but GOOD.

If only Mom knew of my addiction to TV and how difficult it is to break. Having kids makes it easier, but after they are down, I must admit, the TV comes on - especially if hubby is working late. And I learned a lot of things at such an early age that I just shouldn't have known at the age I knew them.

We went to Yellowstone a few years back. My then 2 1/2yr daughter was FASCINATED with the gysers and EVERYTHING. She had not been desensitized to that by all the fakeness and special effects that are on TV today. But I had a difficult time grasping that this was REAL and not just some special effect. I knew that it was real, but there wasn't the AWE that my daughter had.

Here is a great article that I encourage you to read.

The Ugly Babysitters.

And in case you are wondering, what do my kids do while I am blogging? Well, right now my 6YR is working on her art (she loves to look at pictures and try to copy them, right now she is trying to draw Snoopy). My 4YR is builing a bird house with her Lincoln Logs (I cannot tell you how many birdhouses she has made and unmade and made and unmade LOL!). My 2YR is sitting with a library book and "reading" it. She also has paper and crayons near her (and she knows NOT to color in the book - we have always torn pages out of coloring books for them to color so they do not get the idea that they can color in books).