preece@ccvaxa.UUCP (08/26/85)
Well, we haven't made any particular effort to control TV yet, and we've never considered getting rid of it entirely. We both grew up with a reasonable level of addiction and we've both been through periods without it and I don't think either of us is terribly worried about the kids' level of addiction (they're 7 and 4). Both watch more than we'd prefer, but both do lots of other things, too. Our seven year old reads a lot and is ahead of most of her class in that area. We let them watch pretty much what they want, though so far that hasn't led them to anything I would worry about (lots of emptiness, but nothing likely to warp them if paralleled with reasonable family values). A certain amount of imaginative role playing keys off the TV background. I'd rather they role played Swallows and Amazons, but if they want to role play Masters of the Universe, at least they're using imagination and language in building their roles and context. I can remember lots of role playing around Rin-Tin-Tin when I was a kid and I don't seem to have turned into a crazed militarist as a result (weird and warped as I may be in other ways...). ANYTHING carried to excess can be a problem, but the excess may be a symptom rather than a cause. If your kids are watching more TV than you think healthy, maybe you should look for less draconian ways to get them to do other things. If they're huddling in their rooms and not actively involved with the rest of the family, consider that taking away the TV may just leave them reading in isolation instead of viewing in isolation. If the TV is, as one of you said, your babysitter, consider whether you're involving yourself with your kids enough: given the choice, most kids would rather have human attention than electronic [note that I'm talking about kids; teenagers are a different species entirely...]. Frankly, though I'd rather see them reading than viewing, I don't think a paperback babysitter is more than a marginal improvement over an electronic one. -- scott preece gould/csd - urbana ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!preece