I have a confession to make. I’m a television watcher, and so are my children. Since getting tivo, my television watching is more, dare I say, “productive”. Hardly any channel surfing. All I have to do is scroll through my recorded programs and press play.
So, I wasn’t surprised to read this article entitled Many Parents Encouraging Their Tots to Watch TV. According to this study, one third of the nations youngest children are “glued to the tube”. This article states that because we are a generation of parents raised on TV we largely encourage the early use of television, video games and computers by our own children.
The parents questioned during the focus group stated the following:
I have to say that when my daughter was very little, she had just about every Disney sing along video and learned a lot that way. Besides, being a single mother, I found Disney a great help! Put the video on, take a quick shower. Put the video on, make dinner. Disney was a life-saver!!
Some of the parents questioned in this study did say the following, which I found pretty funny:
I can relate. Last night, my son asked me to wake him up at 8 a.m. 7 Central.