Watching Television

Hey, some of us will even spend a milllion dollars (as linked in my previous post) to keep that tube in our lives. Naw, t.v.'s don't have tubes in them anymore. Did you know they used to have lots of little tubes and this one big picture tube...hence the nick-name, "the Boob Tube". (A little diversion from someone whose father had a sideline television repair business.)

Here are a few suggestions I have for those who choose to have t.v. in the family:
1) Monitor programming. Make sure your children now what channels and programs you allow, and what channels and programs you don't.
2) Have television viewing (and video/DVD viewing) be age-progressive. In other words, what's appropriate for a teenager to watch may not be appropriate for a ten-year-old to watch and so on, down the line. This can be controlled either by where the t.v. is kept or by coordinating viewing with progressive bedtimes.
3) Sit and watch programs with your children, at least some of the time, discussing values and lessons. If we make this an enjoyable family activity, they will be more open to our input on this.
4) Occasionally discuss the actors, not their personal lives but their acting abilities and what other shows they've acted in; the scriptwriter and how well they did or didn't do at writing this story; the realism (or not), such as situations you or your child know where people have behaved like this or in a different way; how this movie is or is not like the book or situation it's based on. In these ways, we can help our children to view what is on the screen as entertainment, not real life.