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My wife and I have been raising our five children without broadcast or cable television, but do allow viewing of recorded material, and can clearly see the effect that watching television has on the children.

It is obvious that after even a small amount of television - twenty or thirty minutes - the children are reluctant to turn it off and walk away and when they finally do they are more aggressive, more short-tempered. The family all knows of this correlation. For example, our 9 year old has recently said, "I want to watch Blues Clues with , but he hits everyone afterwards."

Part of the television issue is that conflict is fundamental to a good story. Television displays conflict to children in many varieties. From the angry faces on Thomas the Tank Engine, to Spider Man and Doctor Octopus going at it, the conflict depicted on television are rarely resolved in a manner we, as parents, deem acceptable. Therefore, it is simply wrong to subject our children to such a series of conflicting, confusing messages. The children take these viewed conflicts and work on them, emulating them, trying to understand and internalize them. But it doesn't take much to see the obvious correlation between the mean, hurtful words on Thomas the Tank Engine and the repetition of these words by a four year old.

Clearly, television is attractive and attention grabbing. All those colorful, moving pictures. We as humans are hardwired to look at moving things. When we are overwhelmed with a crying baby, dinner to prepare, the table to set, the television is a great distractor and focus that gives us the time to get the food cooked and on the table for the family. But that convenience comes at a tremendous cost because pulling them away without the ensuing frustrations and tempers is a tactical nightmare.

Therefore, we tend to stay away. We play outside - bikes, scooters, skateboards, tree house, sandbox, swing, soccer, baseball, etc. - or we play inside - coloring, building, blocks, board games, dolls, cars, dress-up, puppets, make believe, etc. And then there are books; from the four year old to the twelve year old, the entire lot of them can come back from the library and sit on a rainy afternoon fully engrossed in a series of books without all the irritable tempers that come after TV.

Occasionally the children encounter references to television events from their friends and peers. They typically respond, with no small amount of pride, that we don't watch television in our house. The friendships persist and the conversations continue on a different track.

With the ability to do so many other, primarily constructive, activities the need for television really doesn't exist. We feel it is convenience, but at a cost. The messages present on television do not align with our parenting messages and we see no reason to confuse our children. So, yes, strongly Yes, children should be raised without television.

Learn more about this author, Peter Degen-Portnoy.
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