This may just be the result of a lot of the research I've done, but as for television being natural or wise, if you really want to teach that lesson to a child, why watch television at all? Why keep it in the house? There are a lot of unnatural things about our modern lifestyle, but that doesn't mean they should be cut out or restricted from our youth.

However, I definitely agree to the consumerism aspect. Commercials drive me nuts because my daughter sees something on television and immediately asks for it. Thankfully, she prefers to watch shows that have no commercials, like the stuff on Noggin, if you have cable.

Here's the problem I have with the babies and television thing. I think putting a baby in front of the television instead of offering them interaction is wrong. That being said, my baby does go in his exersaucer in front of the television. Corde gets unrestricted television time, so usually she wants to have it on just for background noise. Of the nearly constant time our television is on, she's only really watches it for an hour each day unless she's sick, but she's got some obsession right now of it being on in the background, so we're working with that. Aris (the baby) has occasionally gotten sucked in, watching television for a whole of five minutes, but then he gets bored and moves on to playing, only to come back and watch later. I personally see nothing wrong with that.

However, I believe the pediatrics association has issued this warning specifically when it comes to those dvds specifically aimed towards babies, such as Baby Einstein and that sort of thing, where the focus is to teach the baby early language skills. I've heard of mothers that sit their babies down in front of those shows for hours at a time thinking it would make their baby more intelligent and instead the baby doesn't know how to interact with the world around them.

I personally think there's a difference between sitting with your baby and watching television, and having them watch television. When I have Aris in my lap while I watch a show or movie, he's usually watching me, playing with my fingers or a button, or looking at one of his books. I know he's not going to be interested in some history channel show about mummies at his age, so I try to make sure there's something else there for him. Yes, he may watch for a while because I am, but he also plays, explores, and often sleeps.

When the television is on, you really can't stop them from watching. The best thing you can do is provide them with other options that would be far more interesting to encourage exploration instead.

"Stephanie, don't mean to be snippy, but can you really support this statement?"

i'm not willing to plop my toddler in front of a tv all day to find out, so no .. i don't have actual proof.

obviously, folks are going to have to make their own judgments when it comes to tv, but why risk impairing their development with excessive tv watching when it is proven (with like, research papers and stuff) that reading to babies and toddlers increases their language development?

I loved that bit on television (on the joyfully rejoycing site)! It just reinforced everything I've been practicing right along!

There is a big difference between getting sucked into shows and watching television as quality family time. Corde plays Blue's Clues with her brother. If the baby's by her she'll say "Look, Aris! A clue! Put it our handy-dandy notebook!" We've played Wonderpets together. She even insists the baby gets to be one of the Wonderpets on our walks and thinks of some way he can help rescue the animal, even if it's just that the stroller chases away the monsters or his laughter or something babies can do. After all, Wonderpets is all about team work. Today Aris was fussy and the only thing that would get him to calm down was watching Max and Ruby with Corde. He sat in his saucer staring blankly at the television with his eyelids drooping until his head just dropped and he was out. I tried EVERYTHING and that was the only thing that finally got him to calm down and sleep. Is that a bad thing?

Most of the problem with television are those movies like...I believe baby Einsteins and that sort of thing, the kind where they play soothing music, show a picture of a ball and say ball several times in different tones, then show something else. Right around the time Corde was born, everyone was subjecting their babies straight from birth to four or five hours of that mindless television every day in order to stimulate the growth of their minds. Several of those children that I knew had social problems as a result because they had very little human interaction. Maybe it would be different if you sat there with the baby saying, "Look, it's a ball! She said ball! She said it again! You hear that? Ball?" but most of the parents I know think the television means they can walk away.

And if you offer children and babies something constructive to do rather than watching television, their attention won't be kept by it. My son would much rather swing his pacifier around by the clip or roll soda bottles all over the floor than to watch television any day. Children will naturally get bored with television after a while because it interferes with their natural curiosity. However, they take those ideas and bring them into the world with them. Corde loves playing pirates because of Pirates of the Caribbean. Her first make-believe game was ghosts because of a Backyardigan's episode. The only time Corde ever really sits down and watches a whole episode of a show is if she's trying to do it along with the baby or if she's gotten really overwhelmed and needs to settle herself down. While the television is on in our house a lot, the reality of the matter is hardly ever is anyone watching it and we're finally getting to the point where Corde understands that if she turns it off when she doesn't want to watch it, if no one else is watching television, I'll let her turn it on again when she wants to watch it again. It's a process.

That's the problem with television and babies. There are so many more factors than just babies watching television. There's the socialization issue. There's the problem of people who sit their kids down in front of the television and walk away using that as a babysitter. There's a lot of issues when it comes to babies and televisions.

Isn't that where a lot of kids behaviors come from? My daughter's television obsession comes from her father watching television near 24-7 when he was a stay at home dad. As a result, she thinks it's a grown up thing to have the television on all day. In a family that would rather spend more time reading, even with unrestricted television time, the kids would probably rather read. Kids are mimics. They do what their parents do. They see their parents reading, and they will read. They see their parents on the computer all the time, they will be on the computer all the time. They see their parents as couch potatoes, they will become couch potatoes themselves. The problem isn't television or video games. The problem isn't the restricting of those things. The problem IS what the parents do. After all, it's only going to be so effective to say "You can't watch television all day" if that's what you do all day. I know that's not a problem here, but it is something to consider. After all, the best way to lead is by example.

Sorry, can't resist responding to this. Here is some evidence, anecdotal coming from real life families, not clinical research, about how TV isn't necessarily the devil in a box:

www.joyfullyrejoycing.com/influ...v.html

damn funny, yu... damn funny.

Solomon pays no attention the Television. Some of our friends will put on a movie for their toddler and they seem to be interested.
I don't think educational, visionally stimulating movies are bad. I think it's bad when you rely on television to entertain you baby.

tv or no tv, people are going to witness violence in some form or another. whether it's their cat killing a bird, or their mother being hit by a mugger, or a fatal accident on the freeway. even in ages past, there were life situations for children to deal with & everyone made it. i'm sure gandhi witnesses his share of terrible things, but he still managed to make a positive difference in the world.
you can banish television from your home, but kids are going to rebel & watch it at a friend's house anyway. it's impossible to shelter your children from ever experiencing "violence" in the form of actions or words & indeed, i would never want to give my son any false impression of a perfect, peaceful world, because it's not. i don't sit him down in front of the tv for hours on end, but i have some shows i like to watch & he drifts in & out as he chooses. i grew up on television & now consider myself a conservative tv watcher by current societal standards.