TV or Not TV
Should we feel more or less guilt about how much our kids watch?
by L.J. Williamson
March 23, 2008
A parent and child cuddle up together on the sofa under a cozy blanket and turn on a baby video. Mommy points out colors, shapes, and words, just as she would with a book. Isn't this just as good as, or maybe even better than, reading a book together? This is the sort of experience BabyFirstTV is selling, and I don't see the problem, until I talk to Dr. Don Shifrin, another pediatrician from AAP.
"The screen has sound and color and moving images, and no parent can compete. The child isn't watching the parent, they're watching the screen — the screen is interposed between the child and the parent. So we've formed a triangle in which the parent is the weakest part instead of the strongest."
When I confess to Dr. Shifrin that I've just put my daughter in front of the TV so I can take his call, I expect him to hang up on me. I'm relieved when he instead offers me absolution.
"We don't condemn many things in life. We don't hate television. We even gave Sesame Street an award. But what we're here to do is make recommendations for optimal health, and for infants, TV is not optimal.
When I confess to Dr. Shifrin that I've just put my daughter in front of the TV so I can take his call, I expect him to hang up on me.
No two-dimensional screen can equal a three-dimensional caretaker. But we're not going to tell people 'You can't watch TV' — that's silly poo-poo. We are not the nation's nannies. TV is here to stay. But we have to learn to manage it and not let it manage us."
Dr. Shifrin continues, clarifying AAP's oft-misquoted position on television: "We use the terms 'discourage' and 'avoid,' not 'eliminate.' Parents have to be the filter. There has to be a balance, but 'balance' is the toughest word in parenting." And as for the difference of opinion that the makers of baby programming and the AAP seem to have, Dr. Shifrin puts it like this: "We're saying, let the buyer beware. Don't believe everything you read or hear until perhaps people that don't have a vested interest in selling it to you agree." And the claims made by makers of "educational" television for babies, says Dr. Shifrin, are just based on speculation; it's all a big, uncontrolled experiment that we don't yet know the results of.
I've come to the conclusion that television is neither enriching nor evil. It's reasonable to view as suspect the claim that a video can turn a kid into an "Einstein." But it's also reasonable to let your kid watch a little Sesame Street without flagellating yourself to death with a peer-reviewed journal article. Just let go of the guilt — either by letting go of the quest for parenting perfection, or by letting go of the remote.
Article photo: Dionna Raedeke
©2007 L.J. Williamson and Nerve Media
About the Author
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L.J. Williamson is a writer from Los Angeles. Her complaints have been printed in The Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, and Utne, to name a few. She lives with her husband, Monkey Man, and their two children, Fifi Bird
and Sugar Guy. Her website is ljwilliamson.com. |
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