As a kid, I remember turning on the TV to watch cartoons every Saturday and Sunday morning as well as everyday after school. I don’t remember my  parents limiting my TV time, but we didn’t have computers, cell phones and every other electronic gadget either. I don’t remember how much or how little TV I watched when I was 4 or 5 years old. As a mom, though, I monitor TV/movie time like crazy.

My daughter Copy Cat asks every single day if she can watch cartoons. If I say “No,” she moves onto “Can we watch a movie?” When I say “No,” to that she sighs very heavily and walks away or starts begging. Often I’ll say, “Maybe,” and then wait a few minutes as my girls generally start playing some game together. Problem solved.

Recently, we found Dora the Explorer on TV. My girls are hooked. I like it because it teaches many lessons within each short show, such as how to speak spanish, how to solve problems, teamwork, etc. Even so, I’ve been limiting the amount of time my girls plop their bottoms on the couch (or my bed, which is the preferred location for them to watch cartoons in the morning).

However, the past week has been interesting as I’ve debated the benefits and detriments of TV/movies. My girls have been walking around playing Dora and Boots as well as Diego and Alicia from Go Diego Go. They imitate the shows by rescuing animals or pretending to follow a map. My fear was that TV/movies would limit my daughters imagination or create couch potatoes. While the later is still a possibility, the former is no longer a fear of mine. I do see that positive shows like Dora the Explorer provide educational as well as creative opportunities for my children. That doesn’t mean, though, that they are going to watch it all day every day, but a couple hours here and there probably won’t hurt.

What about you? How do you manage the TV/movie monster in your house?

by Kelly Damron

Photo graciously provided by GoonSquadSarah, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved