🚀 go-pugleaf

In a message dated 98-04-02 06:59:30 EST, lrogers@VAXXINE.COM writes:

>So I take a deep breath and say.....I never limited their TV viewing in any
>way or indeed censored much of anything they took in. It didn't seem to be
>my business to do so, as long as they were making pretty good choices.  They
>did

With one exception, my experience has been similar.

The exception is that I did not bring TV into our home when my children were
tiny, so their very earliest and most formative years were without its
influence.  In early grade school the TV was allowed in the door but there was
no time for more than an hour of TV a day (not a parental rule, just a busy
family).  By 8 -10 years they were making their own (corporate) choices (one
TV, located in the family room).  I can't attribute any problems they
experienced growing up to TV, since it wasn't a very large element in their
lives.  And I can't claim to have raised any saints, but at 28-30 years of age
they are good people, good company, and still not TV--or computer--dependent.

Today I see toddlers with video collections, who spend hours before the small
screen.  Their videos are chosen by 'well-informed', well-meaning parents
(including Friends) who would never let a child watch 'inappropriate'
material.  Yet this 'eye-candy' (or 'brain-candy'?) is offered continually --
as a treat, or when the child is 'tired', or 'cross', or (yes, I've seen it
with my own eyes) as a reward during toilet-training!  Or just to keep them
quietly occupied when there's high demand on parental time and attention.
They are being trained by their parents to regard electronic entertainment
(tasteful, of course) as a solution to, or consolation for, many little daily
problems, and a substitute for human interaction.  This is dependency, at a
level I never saw in *any* children when mine were youngsters.

Agreed, books can be as full of trashy (or evil) content as TV or videos.
They can't be used as 'substitute companions' for tots, however.  By the time
children are able to read books, they are more able to make choices -- and
they've had a lot of experience with living companions.

No matter how strictly monitored the content, I wonder what f/Friends' little
ones are learning from the regular substitution of 'virtual' family and
friends for real ones?

I wonder what their capacity for making other choices will be after being
saturated from such an early age with this form of stimulation, particularly
when it is often presented as a 'solution' to the 'problem' of getting along
with others?

Diane Cano
Brooklyn Monthly Meeting