We always have the TV on, too. But only one. :) It's usually on Nick Jr., Boomerang, Cartoon Network... etc. etc... Luke and I have to DVR our shows and watch them after Bo goes to bed. Bo does the same thing, he plays and reads and colors while the TV is on. When it's off, the house is weirdly quiet. Favorite movies: Toy Story 1-3... Kung Fu Panda and Shark Tale. I don't mind it being on, actually. He goes to school all day without TV and we are busy on the weekends running around and stuff, so a little TV noise is fine. I'm not so sure I agree with those who aren't letting their kids near a TV until they are 2... but whatever. TV can actually be educational every once in a while. :)

Don't feel bad, Kim! All those people who sneer about TV being an electronic babysitter just don't understand. Electronic babysitting is television's highest calling.

Clever solution to your problem! The TV addict at our house is DH. It's on CONSTANTLY. I would prefer to listen to music, myself, while I'm cleaning or whatever; and if I am "watching" TV, I'm usually working on something else at the same time. Unless it's an old movie, rarely do I just sit and watch. DD is our champion multi-tasker: TV, facebook, and homework all at the same time!

We do the same thing, except our second tv is a portable dvd player! Our little guy just calls it his "little" tv. It is definitely a life saver when we want to watch sports, or something else, on the "big" tv.

My kids went through the Monsters Inc phase also. Cute the first 2 times, annoying the remaining 137 times. We have gotten to where we just turn off the tv and let them play. They have all sorts of "swiper" hunts and they even play like dogs. Once again, cute the first time, not so cute when they try to eat the dogs food. Hang in there. BTW, I am impressed by the Constanza art!

Wow! I've never heard of that one before. Anyone who has read my posts before knows that we are a tv free family and I refuse to come on here and be snotty and criticize. I'd rather explain my journey and why I did it. My daughter's father drove me nuts when we were dating because he had that thing where he had a little screen superimposed on the big screen and he could toggle back and forth with the sound. I had never seen that one before either. My DD had a Girl Scout trip and almost all the parents going had those dvd things in the car. IN THE CAR??? You can't find another way to entertain yourself so that you don't have to have television IN THE CAR?? WHAT? I want everyone to know that I, too, grew up with the tv always on. Always. We took turns choosing shows. After school I had my stuff, there was news at least twice a day and I fell asleep every night to the sound of my parents watching it. We also did other stuff a lot of the time with it on. We even ate meals with the thing on. All of that continued until I went to college and got a bachelor's degree with a double major in electronic media and journalism. I actually worked on tv news for an ABC affiliate, and also had several print media jobs, and one online editorial position with a newspaper. I had a whole career in media. While I was in college, I learned all that stuff that no one except people in college to study mass media ever learn about electronic media in particular and how your brain interacts with it. We learned all the craziest stuff you can imagine about advertising messages. Eventually I finally just quit because I thought that watching tv just ended up taking priority over other things that I should be doing instead. That and my own tendency to glaze over and stay watching it sometimes if I was tired. Then I went in the military and got a job in psychological operations and propaganda. This is the field that uses mass media as a weapon to psychologically undermine "the enemy." I was there to pay for a graduate degree in mass communications. Again- considering many things academically that the public does not know about or consider for the most part about mass media. Then I got pregnant and there was Baby Einstein staring at me at Babies R Us while I was high on maternity hormones. It was supposed to make them smarter, right? So I, too, began my journey with the electronic babysitter. I can remember days that it saved my sanity when I was really ill. Even from those innocent beginnings with no advertising (except to buy more Baby Einsteins) I noticed the addictive and mesmerizing qualities the thing had on DD. Scary to think about: A small child addicted to anything, especially something I had control of whether or not she had. Then came Sesame Street. Come on! I watched Sesame Street and I turned out ok. That was educational, right? Honestly, I knew it wasn't the best thing for her and would influence her viewing habits likely for her ENTIRE LIFE. So when she was little her limit was no more than 30 min. per day. But even that seemed too much. I mean, that's every day. That's more than she would go to a religious service a week. That was sometimes more than the time than I would READ to her each day. It was more time sometimes than we spent together playing educational games, etc. So that dwindled to 30 min. a couple of times a week. Yes, fits. Yes, pouts. Eventually, yes, adaptation. I knew video games were out of the question. ALL video games. But there were some computer games that were educational (oh boy, here we go again). She liked online MADLIBS and logic puzzles. And all kids have to learn how to use technology because it is an important skill in modern life, right? So, you see it's been an ongoing issue. When she was old enough to watch videos longer than 30 min. I decided that there was one aspect that I WILL NOT EVER GIVE IN TO. It is related to multiple studies done that detailed the number of violent acts an average child had seen by age whatever. Ditto on a larger figure for adults. Most disturbing: a direct link between seeing repeated acts of violence from any source (fiction, news, whatever) and becoming desensitized to it. The general gist is that the first few times you see violence it is upsetting and maybe even hard to watch. Eventually you see it over and over again and you think that is normal and you think- yeah, the world is just like that. Well, maybe the world isn't really like that and maybe it just doesn't have to be. That will never happen to my daughter as long as I can possibly help it. Hopefully I can stave it off until she has that value firmly ingrained. There is no need to subject your psyche to viewing violence. We're not burying our heads in the sand here. Reading about violence is different. Again, I remember studies that illustrated that the brain views memories the same whether they were memories a person saw with their eyes as it happened or whether they watched the image on a television. Wow. DDs father just gave her a copy of Avatar and right before that, her Grandmother gave her an Avatar shirt. Like a big nut, I watch every single movie she ever watches all the way through before she watches it, even if it takes weeks before I get around to it. She just has to wait. So mind you, I have put myself also on this tv free diet. I found the strangest thing. After all this time of not seeing violence, my own senses had returned to "normal." Of course Avatar is well done and has great effects and a great plot, but I don't find it to be a children's movie. I didn't even find it to be an adult movie just because it was too violent. I mean, the violence was tied to a deep and entertaining plot- but I also don't want MY psyche traumatized either. Watching that violence hurt. It hurt. I was upset. I clutched my heart. I cried. Is that entertainment? Not in my book. Would I ever pay money for it or something like it? Never on purpose. Again this is not to criticize all the people who don't choose my path. It is meant to answer questions for others curious about this no tv thing. It is meant to illustrate how someone more educated in mass media than a large amount of the population ends up making this choice that of course is not for everyone. I know how educational, entertaining, informative and riveting electronic media is. I just try my best to limit the stuff that I think hurts the brain or damages the psyche. Imagine this: DD at 9 has never seen a Miley Cyrus or ICarly program. She doesn't run after every new toy, new game or new fashion. She does read popular magazines like Discovery Girls. She has never seen tv news (she has seen print and online print). She has never seen a sporting event on tv. She has never ever seen any programming intended for anyone other than children. She does have media time, but it is monitored and it is limited. OK, now that I have either alienated folks or entertained everyone by being a fruitcake, I have to throw out the rest. You wouldn't believe how many people say they don't watch "very much" tv (until you talk to them about the details). They view what they are watching as not very much, but to someone like me it is a crazy amount. Most people "don't really count" media that is on if they are doing other things while they have it on. I have news for them: it does count. I leave this long and rambling jumble with this thought: Why did the US government find it SO IMPORTANT that Americans had continued access to tv when the format changed to digital? Why? It was SO important that the government issued card/voucher type things for EVERY SINGLE HOUSEHOLD to have two converter boxes mostly for free. The government found it so important that we keep watching tv that they subsidized 2 converters for every household. Did anyone scream socialism for that subsidy? Did anyone question propaganda? Did anyone think that the money used for that program could have been better used for something else? Did anyone wonder why, or were they just glad to be able to see their favorite show in HD? If you read to the end, you get bonus points. Thanks for letting me share the "alternative" viewpoint.

Wow! I've never heard of that one before. Anyone who has read my posts before knows that we are a tv free family and I refuse to come on here and be snotty and criticize. I'd rather explain my journey and why I did it. My daughter's father drove me nuts when we were dating because he had that thing where he had a little screen superimposed on the big screen and he could toggle back and forth with the sound. I had never seen that one before either. My DD had a Girl Scout trip and almost all the parents going had those dvd things in the car. IN THE CAR??? You can't find another way to entertain yourself so that you don't have to have television IN THE CAR?? WHAT? I want everyone to know that I, too, grew up with the tv always on. Always. We took turns choosing shows. After school I had my stuff, there was news at least twice a day and I fell asleep every night to the sound of my parents watching it. We also did other stuff a lot of the time with it on. We even ate meals with the thing on. All of that continued until I went to college and got a bachelor's degree with a double major in electronic media and journalism. I actually worked on tv news for an ABC affiliate, and also had several print media jobs, and one online editorial position with a newspaper. I had a whole career in media. While I was in college, I learned all that stuff that no one except people in college to study mass media ever learn about electronic media in particular and how your brain interacts with it. We learned all the craziest stuff you can imagine about advertising messages. Eventually I finally just quit because I thought that watching tv just ended up taking priority over other things that I should be doing instead. That and my own tendency to glaze over and stay watching it sometimes if I was tired. Then I went in the military and got a job in psychological operations and propaganda. This is the field that uses mass media as a weapon to psychologically undermine "the enemy." I was there to pay for a graduate degree in mass communications. Again- considering many things academically that the public does not know about or consider for the most part about mass media. Then I got pregnant and there was Baby Einstein staring at me at Babies R Us while I was high on maternity hormones. It was supposed to make them smarter, right? So I, too, began my journey with the electronic babysitter. I can remember days that it saved my sanity when I was really ill. Even from those innocent beginnings with no advertising (except to buy more Baby Einsteins) I noticed the addictive and mesmerizing qualities the thing had on DD. Scary to think about: A small child addicted to anything, especially something I had control of whether or not she had. Then came Sesame Street. Come on! I watched Sesame Street and I turned out ok. That was educational, right? Honestly, I knew it wasn't the best thing for her and would influence her viewing habits likely for her ENTIRE LIFE. So when she was little her limit was no more than 30 min. per day. But even that seemed too much. I mean, that's every day. That's more than she would go to a religious service a week. That was sometimes more than the time than I would READ to her each day. It was more time sometimes than we spent together playing educational games, etc. So that dwindled to 30 min. a couple of times a week. Yes, fits. Yes, pouts. Eventually, yes, adaptation. I knew video games were out of the question. ALL video games. But there were some computer games that were educational (oh boy, here we go again). She liked online MADLIBS and logic puzzles. And all kids have to learn how to use technology because it is an important skill in modern life, right? So, you see it's been an ongoing issue. When she was old enough to watch videos longer than 30 min. I decided that there was one aspect that I WILL NOT EVER GIVE IN TO. It is related to multiple studies done that detailed the number of violent acts an average child had seen by age whatever. Ditto on a larger figure for adults. Most disturbing: a direct link between seeing repeated acts of violence from any source (fiction, news, whatever) and becoming desensitized to it. The general gist is that the first few times you see violence it is upsetting and maybe even hard to watch. Eventually you see it over and over again and you think that is normal and you think- yeah, the world is just like that. Well, maybe the world isn't really like that and maybe it just doesn't have to be. That will never happen to my daughter as long as I can possibly help it. Hopefully I can stave it off until she has that value firmly ingrained. There is no need to subject your psyche to viewing violence. We're not burying our heads in the sand here. Reading about violence is different. Again, I remember studies that illustrated that the brain views memories the same whether they were memories a person saw with their eyes as it happened or whether they watched the image on a television. Wow. DDs father just gave her a copy of Avatar and right before that, her Grandmother gave her an Avatar shirt. Like a big nut, I watch every single movie she ever watches all the way through before she watches it, even if it takes weeks before I get around to it. She just has to wait. So mind you, I have put myself also on this tv free diet. I found the strangest thing. After all this time of not seeing violence, my own senses had returned to "normal." Of course Avatar is well done and has great effects and a great plot, but I don't find it to be a children's movie. I didn't even find it to be an adult movie just because it was too violent. I mean, the violence was tied to a deep and entertaining plot- but I also don't want MY psyche traumatized either. Watching that violence hurt. It hurt. I was upset. I clutched my heart. I cried. Is that entertainment? Not in my book. Would I ever pay money for it or something like it? Never on purpose. Again this is not to criticize all the people who don't choose my path. It is meant to answer questions for others curious about this no tv thing. It is meant to illustrate how someone more educated in mass media than a large amount of the population ends up making this choice that of course is not for everyone. I know how educational, entertaining, informative and riveting electronic media is. I just try my best to limit the stuff that I think hurts the brain or damages the psyche. Imagine this: DD at 9 has never seen a Miley Cyrus or ICarly program. She doesn't run after every new toy, new game or new fashion. She does read popular magazines like Discovery Girls. She has never seen tv news (she has seen print and online print). She has never seen a sporting event on tv. She has never ever seen any programming intended for anyone other than children. She does have media time, but it is monitored and it is limited. OK, now that I have either alienated folks or entertained everyone by being a fruitcake, I have to throw out the rest. You wouldn't believe how many people say they don't watch "very much" tv (until you talk to them about the details). They view what they are watching as not very much, but to someone like me it is a crazy amount. Most people "don't really count" media that is on if they are doing other things while they have it on. I have news for them: it does count. I leave this long and rambling jumble with this thought: Why did the US government find it SO IMPORTANT that Americans had continued access to tv when the format changed to digital? Why? It was SO important that the government issued card/voucher type things for EVERY SINGLE HOUSEHOLD to have two converter boxes mostly for free. The government found it so important that we keep watching tv that they subsidized 2 converters for every household. Did anyone scream socialism for that subsidy? Did anyone question propaganda? Did anyone think that the money used for that program could have been better used for something else? Did anyone wonder why, or were they just glad to be able to see their favorite show in HD? If you read to the end, you get bonus points. Thanks for letting me share the "alternative" viewpoint.

Wow! I've never heard of that one before. Anyone who has read my posts before knows that we are a tv free family and I refuse to come on here and be snotty and criticize. I'd rather explain my journey and why I did it. My daughter's father drove me nuts when we were dating because he had that thing where he had a little screen superimposed on the big screen and he could toggle back and forth with the sound. I had never seen that one before either. My DD had a Girl Scout trip and almost all the parents going had those dvd things in the car. IN THE CAR??? You can't find another way to entertain yourself so that you don't have to have television IN THE CAR?? WHAT? I want everyone to know that I, too, grew up with the tv always on. Always. We took turns choosing shows. After school I had my stuff, there was news at least twice a day and I fell asleep every night to the sound of my parents watching it. We also did other stuff a lot of the time with it on. We even ate meals with the thing on. All of that continued until I went to college and got a bachelor's degree with a double major in electronic media and journalism. I actually worked on tv news for an ABC affiliate, and also had several print media jobs, and one online editorial position with a newspaper. I had a whole career in media. While I was in college, I learned all that stuff that no one except people in college to study mass media ever learn about electronic media in particular and how your brain interacts with it. We learned all the craziest stuff you can imagine about advertising messages. Eventually I finally just quit because I thought that watching tv just ended up taking priority over other things that I should be doing instead. That and my own tendency to glaze over and stay watching it sometimes if I was tired. Then I went in the military and got a job in psychological operations and propaganda. This is the field that uses mass media as a weapon to psychologically undermine "the enemy." I was there to pay for a graduate degree in mass communications. Again- considering many things academically that the public does not know about or consider for the most part about mass media. Then I got pregnant and there was Baby Einstein staring at me at Babies R Us while I was high on maternity hormones. It was supposed to make them smarter, right? So I, too, began my journey with the electronic babysitter. I can remember days that it saved my sanity when I was really ill. Even from those innocent beginnings with no advertising (except to buy more Baby Einsteins) I noticed the addictive and mesmerizing qualities the thing had on DD. Scary to think about: A small child addicted to anything, especially something I had control of whether or not she had. Then came Sesame Street. Come on! I watched Sesame Street and I turned out ok. That was educational, right? Honestly, I knew it wasn't the best thing for her and would influence her viewing habits likely for her ENTIRE LIFE. So when she was little her limit was no more than 30 min. per day. But even that seemed too much. I mean, that's every day. That's more than she would go to a religious service a week. That was sometimes more than the time than I would READ to her each day. It was more time sometimes than we spent together playing educational games, etc. So that dwindled to 30 min. a couple of times a week. Yes, fits. Yes, pouts. Eventually, yes, adaptation. I knew video games were out of the question. ALL video games. But there were some computer games that were educational (oh boy, here we go again). She liked online MADLIBS and logic puzzles. And all kids have to learn how to use technology because it is an important skill in modern life, right? So, you see it's been an ongoing issue. When she was old enough to watch videos longer than 30 min. I decided that there was one aspect that I WILL NOT EVER GIVE IN TO. It is related to multiple studies done that detailed the number of violent acts an average child had seen by age whatever. Ditto on a larger figure for adults. Most disturbing: a direct link between seeing repeated acts of violence from any source (fiction, news, whatever) and becoming desensitized to it. The general gist is that the first few times you see violence it is upsetting and maybe even hard to watch. Eventually you see it over and over again and you think that is normal and you think- yeah, the world is just like that. Well, maybe the world isn't really like that and maybe it just doesn't have to be. That will never happen to my daughter as long as I can possibly help it. Hopefully I can stave it off until she has that value firmly ingrained. There is no need to subject your psyche to viewing violence. We're not burying our heads in the sand here. Reading about violence is different. Again, I remember studies that illustrated that the brain views memories the same whether they were memories a person saw with their eyes as it happened or whether they watched the image on a television. Wow. DDs father just gave her a copy of Avatar and right before that, her Grandmother gave her an Avatar shirt. Like a big nut, I watch every single movie she ever watches all the way through before she watches it, even if it takes weeks before I get around to it. She just has to wait. So mind you, I have put myself also on this tv free diet. I found the strangest thing. After all this time of not seeing violence, my own senses had returned to "normal." Of course Avatar is well done and has great effects and a great plot, but I don't find it to be a children's movie. I didn't even find it to be an adult movie just because it was too violent. I mean, the violence was tied to a deep and entertaining plot- but I also don't want MY psyche traumatized either. Watching that violence hurt. It hurt. I was upset. I clutched my heart. I cried. Is that entertainment? Not in my book. Would I ever pay money for it or something like it? Never on purpose. Again this is not to criticize all the people who don't choose my path. It is meant to answer questions for others curious about this no tv thing. It is meant to illustrate how someone more educated in mass media than a large amount of the population ends up making this choice that of course is not for everyone. I know how educational, entertaining, informative and riveting electronic media is. I just try my best to limit the stuff that I think hurts the brain or damages the psyche. Imagine this: DD at 9 has never seen a Miley Cyrus or ICarly program. She doesn't run after every new toy, new game or new fashion. She does read popular magazines like Discovery Girls. She has never seen tv news (she has seen print and online print). She has never seen a sporting event on tv. She has never ever seen any programming intended for anyone other than children. She does have media time, but it is monitored and it is limited. OK, now that I have either alienated folks or entertained everyone by being a fruitcake, I have to throw out the rest. You wouldn't believe how many people say they don't watch "very much" tv (until you talk to them about the details). They view what they are watching as not very much, but to someone like me it is a crazy amount. Most people "don't really count" media that is on if they are doing other things while they have it on. I have news for them: it does count. I leave this long and rambling jumble with this thought: Why did the US government find it SO IMPORTANT that Americans had continued access to tv when the format changed to digital? Why? It was SO important that the government issued card/voucher type things for EVERY SINGLE HOUSEHOLD to have two converter boxes mostly for free. The government found it so important that we keep watching tv that they subsidized 2 converters for every household. Did anyone scream socialism for that subsidy? Did anyone question propaganda? Did anyone think that the money used for that program could have been better used for something else? Did anyone wonder why, or were they just glad to be able to see their favorite show in HD? If you read to the end, you get bonus points. Thanks for letting me share the "alternative" viewpoint.

How many bonus points do I get? :) I can't help but comment on how intelligent/opinionated/smart you seem...seriously, that's not a joke. AND you grew up with TV. So, TV didn't really corrupt you in the end then, right?

Tasha - much love to you! For the record, Avatar was Dances with Wolves with blue people.

Thanks for your kind words. I know- does it harm in the end or not? I'll tell you this much, it is certainly an unpopular option. I mean, you can't eliminate EVERYTHING that is bad for you. You have to pick your battles, so this was one that I chose just because I (obviously) have way too much information. :0)