so, what about TV?

TJOML loved her very first Baby Beethoven DVD. She was barely 3 months old when we played it for her for the first time. Not the whole 20 mins usually - just about 5 or 10 mins.

She was about a year old when we started playing Mother Goose nursery rhymes DVD for her. She loves Baa Baa Black Sheep and Little Miss Muffet and Humpty Dumpty and many more in this 20 min DVD. She asks for it when she is in the mood to watch it and we play it for her. Maybe not all the rhymes in one go.

We don't watch a lot of TV programs at home since TJOML arrived. I do like to catch Sewing with Nancy or Creative Life with Cheryl Fall or Fons&Porter once in a while these days. We do love to watch movies, but, only after TJOML is in bed.

Something I read recently got me thinking about whether I should banish the TV from our home or take a more rational approach regarding TJOML's affinity for the audiovisual.

I grew up watching no TV, because we didn't own a TV until I was in high school. If my parents said it was OK, then our neighbor would let us kids watch some TV at their home once in a while, but that was it. Would I have turned out differently had I watched TV everyday from my childhood? I don't know...

TJOML absolutely loves her "baby" DVDs for now and knows to ask for it and knows to sit back in her favorite spot and watch her show. I worry that it is only a small step to transfer that affinity to some TV program soon.

But, she also loves to play with her toys, run around the house, go to the yard and dig around, play her musical instruments and "read" her books.

It might be too early for me to worry about this. And then again, they say it is never too early...

Certainly restricting TV-viewing is not the issue. It is more about raising a media-aware child who is not so deprived and insulated that when this world opens up to her, she might not know how to handle it with self-control...