My kids don’t watch nearly enough TV. I’ve seen kids so entranced by a dvd that their parents could go away for the weekend and they wouldn’t notice. Big Sis wont fall for this, she has one eye on the Wiggles and one eye on all the adults in the household at that point in time (just in case you get up to something interesting)! Little Bro just keeps his eyes on the middleman and watches Big Sis.
The one exception is Playschool, which will totally captivate them. The problem is, the program is so fantastic that not only is Big Sis engaged, she is also inspired and walks away with a list of things to do.
“Mummy I want to make red jelly with strawberries in it and then a froggy with some pipecleaners and read a book about a tiger….”
This is very tricky if you haven’t watched the show yourself as you can never do it just right, “Not that red jelly - that’s not a froggy, not that book!”. So, Playschool is great but you have to watch it too - which kind of defeats the point!
We did have a viewing of Wiggle Bay the other day and I was struck by one thing - the cheap production costs! I mean, how much money do these guys make and the thing is shot on a beach (that they probably own) with what looks like a camcorder and most of the props from Ikea (I kid you not!)?. By my estimation it cost them $9.95 to make a dvd that probably grossed $100 trillion world wide. I actually find it hard to watch the Wiggles without getting angry at how rich they are - is this a normal reaction do you think? I find the blue one particularly smug looking!
How much TV is too much is a very vexed question. The best advice I’ve got was from a mother of 4 who had been through it all - TV is part of life, your job is to teach your kids to use it responsibly. I think it boils down to watch the good stuff and then switch it off. Oh yeah, and try not to swear at the blue Wiggle!
Television
