Should parents raise their children without television?

I guess some people believe so due to either their religion or just their beliefs but being a mother myself, I don't believe they should. I am one of those people who are tired of hearing other people use the excuse that their child or someone they know is a violent, mean person because of the television they watch, music they listen to or the video games they play. It think it is a crock. I remember a few years ago they made a stink over the AC/DC song Night Prowler because some psycho decided he wanted to stalk and rape or kill women. They dubbed him the night stalker and just because he was wearing an AC/DC hat it became their songs fault. There are a bunch of people who have listened to that song and it didn't make them go out and stalk people. Now I will admit that there are some shows, songs and video games that are too much for young minds but there is a cure for this: If there is a show or movie on the television that you feel your child shouldn't see get off your butt and change the channel...if there is a song on the radio that has explicit lyrics that you feel your child shouldn't hear change the station and if there is a video game out there that has too much blood shed or violence and you feel your child shouldn't see it don't buy it. There are many educational shows, movies, songs and video games out there but I think sheltering your child can only work for so long. After awhile they are going to be subject to the bad things in the world, there is nothing a parent no matter how great you are can do about it. I also remember when my kids were younger it was said that the Teletubbies were gay and that they swore during the shows and that Barney was a child molester well I used to let my kids watch both of those shows because they liked it and I never heard or saw any of the such things while I was watching.

I was actually raised without television, my daughter is five and watches plenty of TV, but we are very careful about what programs she watches. She does not 'get' that the people are actors ALL of the time, but it is something we discuss regularly with her. As it happens, we have seen a couple of people from children's TV in our local area, so she gets that the characters on the TV are not the same as those people in real life. It's not TV that 'does this' to a child, it's part of their learning process like learning that people in a book are not real. Perhaps you could take her to some local drama and she could see the actors in a more 'real' environment. They do something locally like this for kids, and the actors all come out to meet the kids afterwards. Kids can easily absorb ideas, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to understand that TV shows have actors too.

We should all raise them without television but that is easier said than done. As parents, we wouldn't be able to watch our own shows because we would have to practice what we preach. I have never had that experience with my children. I guess it all depends on the ages. Are your kids really young? How old are they?

I only wish itwere possible to raise children without TV. It is difficult to stop them from viewing. To satisfy you (the parent) they might view some good programmes but often they are on to "crap". Iam more concerned about the culturally irrelevant or sometimes pernicious trends taking root in my children esp. in my daughter who is still at a very impressionable age.She is just 10 years old.

Television is probably the easiest way for your child to be exposed to some parts of the world in such a way that you can control the exposure. In raising my kids I censor everything that they watch. When a new program comes on I watch it first to make sure that it is age/content appropriate. I censor the music that gets listened to in our home. I talk to my kids often about the things that they watch to try abd understand how they are processing what they see. My oldest is 13, so I am now getting to the hard part! Television (much like a computer) can be a helpful tool for a parent, but it requires some dilligence on your part. To keep them away from television means that they will go into the world ignorant of many things, and then their education in those areas my be left to peer-influence and finding out the hard way. As far as your daughter goes you may want to think about taking her to a play or letting her be in a play at a community theater production. she can then make the connection between people and acting so that watching TV won't be so hard to understand.

I am the mom of 5 and I struggled with this issue also. Part of me feels like it would be a good thing to not allow any television but then keeping kids 100% sheltered isn't a good thing either. It disturbs me that my older kids can recite any simpsons episode but not "meaningful" things. It is hard to teach a child that some things are not "real". cartoons give kids the wrong impression about a lot of things. It gets harder when they get a little older and you try and watch a movie with them and even though it is rated for them it contains stuff that is more than you wanted them to see. I tended to stay with animal planet and more nature kind of shows. if something came up we discussed it. I don't know how you would fix the whole misconception about real people. maybe taking her to see a play would help her to understand the concept of actors.