What’s Your Child’s Favorite TV Station?
Our Bluey (age 3 1/2) doesn’t understand this question and has no answer for it. And that’s how we like it.
It’s not that he doesn’t watch TV. We’re not anti-TV. But we are concerned about the way that TV can shape your life. We have made a concerted effort that our family’s life will be influenced, as much as possible, by forces beyond corporate TV.
We have several points of conflict with traditional TV viewing:
*Commercials- Young children are not yet equipped with the skills to interpret and deconstruct commercials, so we want Bluey and Plum to see commercials in small intervals. This way we can monitor and discuss the adverts with them.
*Age Inappropriate Advertising- We often find that shows which are geared towards younger kids tend to have commercials for other shows, video games, and movies that are rated for an older child than our Bluey.
*TV Schedules Your Day- For us, there is nothing sadder than to hear a child say that they need to be home at a certain time to see their favorite show.
*Unlimited Hours of Operation- There’s always something on- even if it’s terrible.
And yet we, like most of our adult friends, enjoy watching TV. As we said, we’re not anti-TV, we’re anti-lettingTVcorporationsrunyourlife.
So we wanted to create a system where:
*Our kids can view shows which have parental approval
*Our kids learn about advertising and how to process it with a critical eye
*The entire family watches TV for a limited time
*No one has their day scheduled by the TV Guide
How did we accomplish these goals? DVDs!
DVD’s put you in charge of your family’s viewing habits. Commercials are at the beginning of the disc and can usually be skipped. If not, they can always be muted. You choose what time of day you watch and for how long each member of your family watches TV. Neither you, nor your kids, are slaves to what is ‘Hot’ right now. We (the adults of the TR family) just started watching The Sopranos Season 1. There is no chance any inappropriate content will sneak into your TV viewing.
Plus, we save money our cable bill by ordering the smallest possible TV service. We take this savings and use it to get the DVD’s that our family is ready for.
Tip: Your local library probably has free DVDs you can check out. Drop by and see what the selection is.
Take back control of your family’s TV habits!