but there are far too many parents who simply *don’t care* how much television their kids watch, all too willing to fool themselves that as long as it’s “educational”, it’s okay. i have a real philosophical problem with that.

will it rot their brains? no, they’ll probably still grow up to be pretty intelligent kids. but as the article said, it’s depriving them of other, more enriching experiences. in a world where kids are already deprived of a lot of the freedoms you and i grew up with, i find it very sad.

For example, when I am stuck on the sofa nursing the baby or working at the computer and my daughter is pulling at me, wanting me to play and then crying when I say I can’t, I don’t kick up a fuss when she turns the tv on and watches it for awhile. And sometimes I just need a mental health break and if the alternative to not allowing tv is me screaming at them, I’d rather my kids watch a half hour of CBeebies or Mary Poppins than have a fuming mother pretending to enjoy playing. I feel incredible guilt about the tv that my daughter watches and alternate between resolving to get rid of the thing and not putting too much stress on myself to be perfect.

It’s so hard being a parent and getting all of this conflicting information. If you don’t let your kids do certain things you’re seen as too coddling and overprotective and if you let them do too much you’re judged as lazy and permissive. It’s a tough balancing act and I hope I can find some balance on this particular issue soon. So while in an ideal world no one would let their young children watch tv, the reality is that some people are just trying to survive and in the grand scheme of things, too much tv isn’t probably going to rot kids’ brains as much as we sometimes think.