Too Much TV

Yes, I read everything about the dangers of television. I know it's not good for young children to watch TV. If you've never used technology to entertain your kid [and said child is at least one year old], I'll give you a cookie. Really, you deserve it. 

I caved.

Letting him watch some TV in the mornings while I tried to get ready for work seemed like a small thing. It was even kind of cute when he got excited about the singing Shushybyes cartoon on the Baby First channel. 

However, lately I've been noticing a trend. He's watching a little TV in the mornings while I rush around. He's watching a movie between play time at the grandparents' houses during the day. He's finishing off the night with Peppa Pig [his current favorite]. When I started adding up the hours I became alarmed. 

We learned early on that asking the grandparents to cut it out wasn't going to work very well.  Having grandparents to watch our son while we work has a ton of benefits, but one of the drawbacks is that it's pretty tough for them to draw a line between caregiver and grandparent.  

So, I knew that if I wanted to cut back on the TV time, it was going to have to happen on our end.  We are four days in and I think we are doing pretty well. 

Tuesday, he watched 30 minutes of Monsters Inc. and a few short Peppa Pig episodes for a total of 90 minutes. Under two hours so I was happy.

Wednesday, he watched two movies at the grandparents. He was a little peeved that I wouldn't let him watch Peppa Pig that night, but I had to compensate somewhere.

Thursday, he watched two more movies at the grandparents and had a meltdown when I turned down TV time that night. It was hard, but I didn't cave. 

Friday, he watched 30 minutes of The Croods with my sister and is currently enjoying some Peppa Pig with Daddy before bed. 

We definitely can't quit cold turkey, but as long as it's 2 hours or less and he stops waking up asking to watch a movie I'll be happy. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I think kids should wake up ready to play, not sit in front of a television. 

We let the TV time get out of hand. Here's hoping we can fix it.