I’ve been thinking a lot lately about TV, and the place of prominence it can sometimes have in our daily life.

People with thoughts about TV tend to be REALLY EXTREME, and that’s not where this is going, so don’t worry.

We tried out the Unplugged Project this week and it was a lot of fun.  It got me thinking a little about our TV habits.

And then, we watched the Berenstein Bears.  It’s a really cute show, I know.  It was one of those rare times when I actually ended up watching the whole show with the girls, really only because I was busy styling their hair for church, and it kept them still.

But this episode was really…interesting.  Mama Bear is completely frustrated because Brother, Sister, and Papa are always watching so much TV.  So she makes a rule of no TV for a week.  At first they’re horribly bored and miserable, but then they find all of these fun and exciting things to do because they are not just sitting around watching TV.  The moral of the show is of course that watching too much TV makes you miss out on a lot of fun stuff.  Great.

I just thought it was a little ironic that my kids were recieving this message via a TV show.

Do they seriously want us to stop watching their show?  I doubt it.

Anyway, this is what really got me thinking about my thoughts on televison and the role it plays in our lives as a family, and especially in the lives of my kids.

Some people have the tendency to decide TV is the devil and turn into television nazis.  This is not me.

It’s easy for me not to see it as completely evil because we don’t have cable.  My kids get to see shows on PBS thanks to our awesome rabbit ears, which i know will not be working very soon:( but for now they’re great.  The rest of the time they are watching videos that we own or have borrowed from the library.

I know not all TV programming is perfect, but I can’t deny that it does have some benefit.

Miss A learned all of her colors, shapes, and numbers basically through Baby Einstein, which I am embarassed to admit, but it’s totally true.  She also picked up a HUGE vocabulary from these videos once she started talking.

The new obsession in our house has been Superwhy.

It’s actually kind of cute, and has got them totally hooked on having their capes and wands at all times, AND, Miss E now knows the ENTIRE alphabet. 

She’s 3 by the way.  All of the sudden she is looking at things around the house and pointing at each letter as she spells the words to me.

So, for those of you who may be out to convince me that the telvision will rot my kids brains, don’t bother, because I just won’t believe it.  If they were watching inappropriate things all the time that argument would of course be different.  But they’re not so…

This is my thought on TV: it’s like juice.

Thanks to WIC, we have a never ending abundance of 100% fruit juice in our house at all times.  Juice is good for you, so that’s nice.  And the girls love it.  But if you’ve ever read anything about childhood nutrition, you know there is a problem with juice.  It’s very filling.  And if the kids are filling up with juice all day, then they don’t eat as much food.  So even though the juice may be “healthy”, they are missing out on a lot of nutrition that is in food and can’t be found in juice. 

Now, I don’t think anyone has ever died from drinking too much juice.  Because it’s not really BAD for you.  It’s just that you could be having something that’s BETTER for you instead of all that juice.

I’m sure you get my point.  I have no intention of banning television or juice in my house, I just need to help my girls have these things in MODERATION.

TV is fun.  Especially Superwhy.  And I can’t deny that I don’t want to take it away from my girls because they love it SO MUCH!  But they also love painting, and dress up, and digging in the dirt.  I just have to make sure they get a good balance of all the things they love.

So we can watch Superwhy and have a cup of juice with dinner, and fill the rest of the day with water and creative play!;)