The Mr and I have gone through a journey with our kids and figuring out what works as far as what we allow in our home to influence our children. We are not screen free by any means, which will be another post in itself. We do have televisions, but we have very strict rules about what the kids watch.
We homeschool our kids because we want our influence to be what they have in their younger years, instead of someone we do not even know having our kids for 8+ hours a day.
We really thought about that in the form of television as well. We want to know what is influencing our kids. They do watch movies and because they both have a hard time falling asleep, we do turn a movie on at bedtime, but they are asleep before it is finished.
First, let me say, I am in no way saying this is what you should do. It is just what is best for our family. Every family is different.
1. Commercials. The kids still watch TV and their great-grandmother's house. She is a very wonderful Church of God Lady that will switch the channel in a heartbeat if something is not good. She watches with them, so she knows what they are seeing. The problem with this is that when they come home, for 2 days, I hear about the toys they want that they saw on a commercial. My kids are not "I want I want" kids, but after seeing commercials, they sure are.
2. Episodes. It is near impossible to watch every single episode of a TV series and know that it is okay for them to watch. Some shows seem fine, then there is that one episode that is just way off the mark.
3. Bad programming. We are just not fans of the agendas being pushed in schools, television, and with the government. We do not yet want our kids exposed when they are still so impressionable. It is allover television. I know this is controversial, but an 8 year old should not even be thinking about sexual orientation.
4. Lack of educational shows. When the kids were little, they did watch PBS Kids and Sprout, with a little Disney Jr mixed in. I loved the educational shows and the shows helping kids learn to solve problems. Now that they are 8 and 11, there aren't many educational shows available for them. I'd much rather them watch an educational youtube video (that I've already selected), play a game, or even better- read a book or go outside and play.
5. We aren't big TV watchers. We watch 1 episode of the old Survivor season a night after the kids go to bed and that's it. So, if it is something we aren't really into, why are we going to create that habit in our kids.
Like I said, we are far from screen free in our house. The kids have tablets, old smart phones (with no service) and other electronics. They also have a TV/ DVD player in their room, but actual television is a big no in our house. We even turned our sattelite off and switched to streaming services.
What are your thoughts on kids watching television?
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