The Electronic Babysitter/Teacher

I've felt for a long time that I let LC watch too much TV. It's one of those things I had such high moral standards about in my pre-parent days, yet now that the time is here, that standard has somehow slipped waaaaaaay lower than I ever dreamed possible. Does it consume me with guilt? Yeah, sometimes. But I've also always felt we've done it 'right' (if it's possible to do the 'wrong' thing the 'right' way) in how we've approached the situation. I've come across a number of reassurances lately that we are NOT completely rotting our kid's brain. Let me share .......

1. We are very picky about what he watches. Not only do we look to see whatever he watches has some form of lesson / content that we approve of, but we try very hard to make sure most of it is in Dutch so that he can expand his fluency in his second language. He gets enough English at home, and since we're hoping to get him into a Dutch school (a subject for another blog), the more he's exposed to, the better.
2. We balance out his time between playing with friends, burning off energy physically, playing with toys/books, running errands with me, AND watching TV.
3. Most importantly, we try to make sure he learns something from everything he watches, that they become 'teachable moments'. For example:

*At the Natural history Museum in London (see this blog), he could very easily tell me facts about most of the animals he saw there (what elephants eat, where lemurs live, that armadillos can dig because they have sharp claws, etc) all because of how much he loves Diego.
*During Aladdin, we've talked about how the Cave of Wonders gets really angry with Abu for touching the forbidden treasure. LC now draws parallels in his own life, acknowledging that he shouldn't touch the oven / the car door handle / things on shelves at the grocery store, etc because then he's being naughty like Abu, and Mommy will get angry like the Cave of Wonders.
*We practice recognizing the emotions other people are having, such as when Belle gets scared because the Beast yells at her (and yelling at people isn't a nice thing to do), when Princess Fiona and Shrek are happy because they're playing nicely together, and when the people of Nottingham are sad because the Sheriff is mean and takes away all they're money (this is why we don't steal things from other people).

And all of this doesn't even touch the subject of the nuts-and-bolts kind of education he's received from the Baby Einstein DVDs of his baby/toddler years and the Sesamstraat (Dutch Sesame Street) now. He knew all his colors, shapes, numbers, alphabet, animals, musical instruments, etc much earlier than most kids his age. And no, I'm not a snob about these things and think somehow that makes him 'better', I'm just happy to say that what he's watched hasn't been total electronic drivel, but has exercised his brain in (what we feel are) positive ways. I'm sorry, but I just cannot work up any feelings of guilt over letting my kid watch Sesame Street in a foreign language for 90 30 minutes.

And wouldn't you know it, just today on the BBC, a new report came out about the effects (both positive and negative) about children watching TV. Admittedly it may be slightly biased, seeing as a television company commissioned the report. But as the well-respected child psychologist who wrote the report seems to say pretty much everything we've been feeling about it for a while now, I'll choose to believe this lets me off the hook as far as guilt is concerned. Well, at least a little bit, anyway.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I should go pry my son away from The Backyardigans, and thank him for sitting quietly long enough to let me post this blog.