TV

Emmie watching TV

Ray-J watching TV

We have TVs, and I let my children watch them. Ours are basically what a high school teach of mine called "electronic wallpaper" and I am not thrilled about it. I watch it when I nurse Emmie and other times throughout the day, but Ray-J loves (loves means he likes the shows enough to be excited they come on and watch a couple of minutes of the show) it. Emmie is not really that interested in it yet, unless there are some bright colors.  Ray-J, on the other hand, will zone in for a couple minutes on a show, and he loves the commercials even more, he can zone into an entire set of commercials, sometimes I can't even get his attention if there is a commercial on. I think the commercials are just long enough to keep his attention, before changing to a different one, but what bothers me is that they are constantly switching. I know that is how ADD people have described their brain: "Like a TV that is constantly changing channels." I try to turn it off during the day sometimes, but the quiet hurts my ears because they ring all the time. When we lived in Jacksonville I had my stereo, and would listen to music, but we don't have that here so I have just left the TV on. My problem is I don't want them to become tv junkies, but I also don't want them to be those kids who never watch it so when it is turned on they are zoned into it. Ryan and I both grew up with TVs constantly on, so this may be difficult, because we both say we turned out fine. Although, I don't like to read, I will, but I never sit down excited to read. Ryan does love to read, and he does all the time, but with the TV constantly on our children don't see that. Recently I purchased a small boom-box for the kids room, this way the TV can be turned off at night, because as of right now the TV is on all night. I am trying to slowly wean him off of it at night. I am thinking of using that during the day, to see how we all do without the TV, so we will see how it goes......