Television is an amazing invention. It really works.
They say it makes your kids zone out… Yep.
I heard it’s not good because it slows the development of brain cells and cognitive functions. Sounds about right.
When your kids are watching TV, you could probably shoot a gun off in the room behind them, and they will not avert their gaze from the screen, let alone acknowledge your presence.
And, sometimes, it’s totally what you need for your kids.
Believe me, my wife and I had all of the philosophical discussions about this pre-kids:
“Let’s make sure we read to our children everyday!”
“TV is not good for our kids, so we need to prevent them from watching too much.”
“I think we should limit their TV watching time to select hours of the day and days of the week.”
We still agree to the above points. We both still want to limit TV and minimize the amount of time our children spend in front of the “boob tube.”
All that philosophical stuff aside here’s the reality that we have found ourselves in as parents:
It is 5:15pm on a Tuesday, which means we are full swing into dinner prep. Our two-year old son has hit complete meltdown. He is starving because he did not eat a great lunch and refused his afternoon snack. In addition, his afternoon nap was brutal. As a result, he’s in a perpetual state of whining, crying and demanding attention. Simultaneously, our 4 month-old daughter is crying because she needs to nurse, then upon nursing, vomits all over the place. Now she’s crying harder, her outfit is a total mess, my wife and the chair are also both covered in vomit. My son is now more upset because “sister is crying” so he responds, in turn, by increasing his volume. I now pick up my daughter so my wife can change, while also trying to comfort my son with the one free arm that I have, and trying to figure out a way to clean the breast-milk vomit off of the chair using my foot.
Really?! Something’s gotta give here…
I turn on the TV, flip on a DVR’d episode of “Curious George,” give my son a cup of milk and a bowl of Goldfish, then tuck him into our bed.
Problem solved…
The Gomes household immediately enjoys some peace and quiet. My son barely acknowledges my existence, let alone responds when I ask him how the Goldfish are. Which he is coincidentally inhaling from the bowl, while chugging milk with the other hand, and cautiously looking around his hands so that he can watch Curious George simultaneously without breaking his gaze to eat or drink. Kind of impressive technique actually…
My wife finishes changing, I change my daughter’s clothes, pass her back to my wife to finish nursing, then finish cooking dinner.
Cartoon parenting strikes again…
Despite my best efforts as a dad to get the situation under wraps, the TV took control. Cartoons come through in the clutch and save the day.
Is TV the devil? Not sure…
But when faced with the option of having to simultaneously calm down two children, change one child’s clothes, cook dinner, and clean up vomit, I needed an equalizer. Wonderful television is the ace in the hole.
We will continue to read to our children and limit their television time, just not during meltdowns when we are trying to cook dinner. I’m just sayin’…