Home > Parenting & Pregnancy > Children's Activities > After School
Should parents raise their children without television?
Results so far:
| Yes | 23% | 1149 votes | Total: 5012 votes | |
| No | 77% | 3863 votes |
Yes
by Tennessee Grace
Created on: August 16, 2007
Promise not to write me off as crazy before you read on. I was raised in a home without television....and I am not old, and my parents are not weird or Amish or anything like that.
For multiple reasons, my affluent, (and very cool) parents decided we would not have a television in our home. (Now I will admit, Dad did keep one up in the attic in case there was a national emergency and we needed to see what was happening, but it was not plugged in or attached to an antennae.) My parents were both raised in homes with Television sets, but when they had the 4 of us children, they began to reevaluate what a home life should look like. (You notice all the shows on TV rarely show families actually watching TV.)
They decided that a healthy home life requires interaction, communication, chores, outdoor activity, some family discussions, a few games of monopoly, ...I could go on. The point is, though television is not bad in and of itself, free 24 hour entertainment in the living room of a home is almost impossible to resist. News and weather reports are always available on the radio. Entertainment with moral or interactive value is easily found when there is no television around to compete for our attention. And there is something else that develops...a keen awareness of what we put in front of our eyes.
Medical research supports that every word we hear, every sight we take in, actually enters our brain and lodges itself in our physical memory. We may not think we are listening or that what we see will affect us, but for better or worse, we have already taken it in and let it become a part of who we are.
My parents chose to demonstrate wisdom and sacrifice. They taught us about self denial, family communication, and integrity. Without a television to tell me what we had to have, I grew up without the need for Barbie dolls and the latest Nike tennis shoes, no Strawberry Shortcake bedroom ensemble or desire to dress like Daisy Duke when I grew up. Now, as an adult, going without television hasn't made me a better person. It has made me conscious of what I watch and aware of the shallow life it portrays.
Today, in my apartment, a television sits in the center of the room. Continually, I fight the urge to waste another evening being a voyeur into the fictitious, hilarious world it promises to give me. When I do turn it on, I can avoid dealing with the awfulness of life. I can deny my mind the worries and cares of the day, and issues needing decisions, and friends needing called, and journal entries needing written. It keeps me from feeling lonely. It offers fashions and trends I should try to keep up with. It's all foolishness! My parent's decision to go without has profoundly affected me.
There is no reason we all should throw out our televisions, or forbid ourselves from watching. I just think the attic is a great place for them to be stored. I am committed to remembering all of this when I have my own home and children one day. Life is just too short to waste on trivial entertainment.
Learn more about this author, Tennessee Grace.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
by Matt Remley
Created on: February 04, 2009 Last Updated: February 10, 2009
Parenting can be a challenge, especially with all of the new obstacles that children face these days. Many people blame children's social disorders or behavior on excessive viewing of television. Which brings us to the question, should parents raise their children without television or allow them to view it?
It is in my opinion that parents should ultimately decide for themselves and their children whether or not television is a danger or not. However watching television does have many pros that cannot and should not be ignored by parents. Look at your television, imagine it being a gateway to many different worlds, and think about how much there is to learn about that world.
Now think of children, not just yours but all of them. They are the essence of innocence, and have not yet been corrupted by what us adults know as the real world. We can give them the opportunity while they are still young to learn about different worlds and cultures allowing them to have an open mind about whatever they see when they do enter the real world.
Needless to say there are many exceptions to the rules, for example it wouldn't be right for a child to watch an episode of the Real World or Sex In The City. When deciding what a child should watch, perhaps it is best if a parent educates themselves on TV Parental Guidelines.
For example if the parent owns digital cable or satellite, on the television guide beside shows it displays a rating. When checking for ratings, a G rating would mean that the program is suitable for every age group. This system of ratings is similar to that used with video games, where each one is labeled with a rating.
In addition parents could time how much television their children watch, just to make sure they don't watch too much. It seems like all parents have a problem with their children doing too much of one thing, so maybe the issue isn't them watching too much television.
From parental controls on next generation cable/satellite systems, or the already useful rating systems, there are many ways for parents to keep children safe while watching television. Parents should attempt to learn about each of these safeguards before taking away the remote from a child.
Children from the 1980's and on have been growing up with several forms of media, one being television. That generation also saw the invention and mass production of video games, and they didn't turn out to be mindless zombies. Television may have bad programming on certain channels but it's no reason to keep children from watching television altogether.
If you ask me watching television isn't a problem, there are many things that children can learn from it even at the risk of having to explain things such as life and death to them early. They have to learn about those situations one day, don't be afraid of them encountering them as they are a part of life.
Learn more about this author, Matt Remley.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Write and get published
Share with other writers
Polish your freelancing skills
Quality articles from proven freelancers
Exclusive rights, fast turnaround
Brand engagement, business blogging -- our writers do it all
INFORMATION
Copyright © 2002-2012 Helium, Inc. All rights reserved.