What Do You Let Your Kids Watch On TV?

Skunk in the barnyard peeyeewww, somebody farted…it’s YOU

This is what I hear my kids and all the neighbourhood kids singing at the very very very top of their lungs.  I choose to ignore it.

It’s happened, they’ve got to my kids.  I am no longer in charge of what they hear or what they know.  Silas and his neighbourhood friends are all in Kindergarten at various schools and they’re all learning these new things, like songs about farting, guns, etc.

The umbrella of the completely kind and un-violent world that the wonders of Treehouse and Disney Playhouse had created for them has gotten old, withered…and then someone stole it.

My kids now ask to watch Spongebob, they want to own transformers.  Isaac has been turning sticks in to “shooters” and pretends to shoot at his friends.  No, they’ve never seen any of this in their own home.  It’s all things others have brought to them, sometimes it’s more than second hand info.  A lot of kids I know aren’t allowed to watch violence…but they’re still teaching it to my kids.

Now, I won’t judge you if you let your kids watch it a bit.  I’m crazy enough to not even let my kids watch Disney.  They have no idea about any of it.  They once watched Finding Nemo without me knowing and Silas ran from the room screaming, mortified of the fight with the light on it’s head.  They lived in such a nice little bubble.

I do tend to get upset with people who let their little kids watch almost anything.  I’ve been very uncomfortable in theaters more often than not.  I dunno, I just don’t think a 3 year old girl needs to be watching Narnia, especially when she’s mortified and crying about it.  Take her home, let her watch Backyardigans and cleanse that little mind.

Lots of parents are faced with this decision, what to let their kids watch.  I don’t care WHAT you do as long as you make your own decision.  Instead of just letting your kid watch ANYTHING that has ANYTHING to do with kids…like the 3 year olds watching Transformers at 11:00 PM in the theater.  Maybe they have thought about it….I dunno.  Was that an informed decision?

People often say “they’re going to see it eventually”.  I guess they’re going to have sex eventually too, they’ll also most likey try pot, watch porn, get drunk and have a one-night-stand eventually too…shall we just let them go for it now?  Isn’t there a time for things?  Isn’t embracing the innocence of childhood for as long as one can…a good thing?  Do I have my head up my ass here?

But maybe the person who let their kids watch whatever’s kid…who in turn told the neighbour kid…who in turn told my kid…just maybe they did think about it.  They may have had a good reason.  Perhaps it was informed.

I should try not to judge.  I really try not to judge.  Honestly.

But…alas…I can stop my rant and just say that I guess it’s the time where I start to slowly introduce my children to some things, with lots of talking about it, with lots of covering their eyes at first, slowly easing them in to the idea that our world is completely fascinated by violent behavior and that it’s what we use to entertain ourselves and our children.

Are we any better than the Romans?  Have we evolved at all?

Perhaps, I mean at least we let our children watch people pretending to kill other people…so I guess it’s ok?

It baffles and fascinates me at the same time.  I watched it ALL as a kid, anything kid related was a-ok.  Unless my parents felt there was some spiritual purpose to not letting me watch a kid’s show.  Sometimes books came out about certain programs and Christian families somehow saw Satan in Teddy Ruxbin and I was no longer allowed to watch it.  It was perfectly fine for me to watch Wile E Coyote try to kill Roadrunner by dropping an anvil on his head though.

Of course sexual programming wasn’t allowed, which I am now happy for.  We are definitely over-sexualizing everything and kids see it all.  I wasn’t happy with it at the time.  But thanks for that one mom.  I honestly didn’t need to be watching Friends.

I’m definitely a movie lover.  I just recently downsized and got rid of all my Disney flicks that I had collected as a kid.  Partially because they’re VHS and partially because I’m kind of an anti-conformist about such things.

Now I could go on and on and on and on about the media and how I feel about it…but for now my kids aren’t asking for Spongebob shirts and batman costumes.  I don’t have a little girl asking for Disney Princess stuff *shudder*..so I’ll just stick with TV.

I guess I’m just being a brat and I’m kinda mad that not everyone sees it my way.  I wanna stomp my feet and shout and whine and tell people to conform to my non-conformity.  But I do understand, we all have our own values and we all have unique children.

I have an older child who tends to get aggressive…even on a good day.  Why would I allow him to watch violence?  I would be NUTS to do such a thing.  I was the victim of my big brother’s beatings every time we watched WWF or a Jackie Chan movie.  We would then head to my mom’s bed and practice all of our moves….it hurts.  He still hurts me…ha ha.

I find there’s too many kids in the neighbourhood with this hard look in their eyes.  They’ve seen to much, perhaps experienced too much already.  That hardness breaks my heart.  You’re a child…you’re supposed to be innocent.

So, other parents out there.  Please tell me what you’ve done with your kids.  Have you sheltered them as I have?  Why?  I’m sure the majority of you aren’t as anal as I am about what they see on TV…why?  Which of you let them have a lot more freedom?  Why?

I do know boys are innately violent.  It’s part of them and it’s part of their development.  I need to read a book on this I think..

What I’m really looking for here is my next step.  My kids are 4 and 5 and learning all this stuff from their friends anyway.  I need to make a good, educated decision on where to go from here.  Isaac wants to watch Spongebob…should I let him?

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