by Carla Raley

Created on: August 06, 2009

As an older mother with ten children, ages 33, 30, 23, 21, 18, 15, 12, 5, 4, and 2, I have done both. We raise our first five with a TV, although by the time babies number four and five came along, we were beginning to limit it. Child number six rarely saw it, and by the time child number seven was born, and then our last three children, adopted from the foster care system arrived, we no longer had a TV in our house.

We chose to get rid of it for several reasons. The main one was the bad influence it had on our children. Even the cartoons had impure commercials, and the cartoons themselves were getting worse and worse, even more than ten years ago when we finally let TV go. Children were disrespectful or got around their parents. Children were mean to each other, and always, always had smart mouths. It just wasn't what I wanted my children to see. We went with the old movies for a while, but with the TV and VCR in the house, it was always a temptation to watch one that "wasn't all THAT bad," and let our guidelines slip.

Another thing was that when we were watching TV, we were not interacting with each other. Once the TV was gone, for one thing, I had to get up earlier on Saturday mornings because the TV was no longer there to babysit for me. That was good for me, although it felt like pain at the time. When we had the TV, we were always shushing the toddlers, telling the little ones to sit down, move, be quiet, wait for the commercial. I am so glad we don't do that anymore.

I no longer have a TV babysitter, which means I have to teach my children how to behave when I am busy. Better yet, I actually have taught them how to help me.

Child care experts now say that no child should watch TV before the age of three. I believe that is one reason - along with homeschooling them - that my children test out so smart. I also recently had a foster child who had drug addicted parents. She came to me at the age of six months with a host of health and sensory problems. I worked with her and loved her until I had to give her back to her biofamily, a great aunt and great grandmother in another state got custody of her when she was 26 months old. They put her in day care a month after she left me, something I had never done. The day care put her in an classroom based on age, but soon had to move her to another older class because she was so smart and so much more mature than the other children. I credit no TV for part of that, especially based on the findings of experts.

And one more thing, I think it's good for ME, that we don't have a TV. My mind is not filled with the fantasy world of any kind of TV program. I don't see reality shows. I don't see commercials (which helps with my budget) I just see the real, true world I put before my eyes, a world with real people I can touch. All those hours I used to devote to TV are now devoted to living. Life is much better!

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