Okay, I was a sucker for the Bonnie Hunt Show. It was pretty funny, but also had a lot of heartwarming stuff that felt kind of true three or four years ago when we were parents of very little kids. This video, as she says in the intro, doesn’t contain anything bizarre or amazing, but if you’ve had a baby or even if you just are human, it’s hard not to smile when you see it.
Posts Tagged ‘Television’
Baby, meet dog. Dog, meet baby. It’s hard not to smile at this baby video.
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009Join the crusade to turn off the TV for kids 2-5
Monday, November 2nd, 2009Nielsen reported last week that children ages 2 to 5 spent nearly 25 hours a week watching television, the highest figure on record. They spent an additional seven weekly hours watching DVDs, playing video games, and watching TiVo-style time-shifted television.
[From Drilling Down - Children Ages 2 to 5 Watch More TV Than Ever - NYTimes.com]
We all know TV can’t be good for little kids. We all read the same reports and know if makes a bad baby sitter. We also depend on it periodically to keep the kids busy for a few minutes while we do a few emails or finish making dinner.
But we know it doesn’t have to be on all the time. Let’s all resolve to leave it off except when we really need it. We can wean the kids off it, pointing them to their pile of unused toys, and maybe getting down on the floor with them to reaquaint them with Legos, Barbies, and train tracks.
Stop the war on TV (between you and your kids)
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009There’s no excuse for using a television as a babysitter, unless you’ve lost control of the TV. We all need a break now and then and TV isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is important to know how to control the television, without letting it, and your kids, control you.
Here are a few tips to help make it easier for you to keep the kids playing with their toys and reading books rather than watching mind-numbing TV for hours.
1. Leave the TV off. If you set the example of TV running continuously, you can expect to have kids who watch whatever is on without thinking of alternatives. 
2. Schedule program times or use your Tivo to play particular shows. It’s better to have a show in mind rather than letting the TV run. You have more control over what type of show and how long the kids will watch. You can get them to agree to “one Backyardigans,” but it’s harder to turn a show off halfway through when you sense they have had enough.
3. Out of site, out of mind with the family TV. Make you family TV or TVs hard to get to. Most families make them the center of the family room or living room. If you put the TV in a place that isn’t the most comfortable, there’s less incentive to hang around there. Keep TV out of kids’ rooms.
4. Never serve food at the TV.
5. Make your kids ask you if they can watch TV. Rather than allowing them to watch one hour per week, they will get a better idea that watching TV is a privilege rather than an expected dose they should expect every day.
6. Choose quieter shows. Stay away from scary shows or violence, especially with small kids. You probably notice that your kids are more wound up or cranky after watching violent shows, a reaction that shows up in research studies. 
While the average American child watches TV 3-4 hours per day, nothing says that your kids have to watch any at all. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents of kids 2 and older to let them watch no more than one to two hours daily. The AAP recommends that kids under 2 watch no television at all.
Casting agency looking for stay at home dads for show.
Thursday, June 11th, 2009I spoke with the talent agency involved and she told me that this is going to be a documentary about stay at home dads with a bit of a reality TV angle, but tastefully done.
I promised I’d pass on the info:
Are you a Stay at Home Dad or know one?
Looking for STAY AT HOME DADS in Big Cites (San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Orange County, New York City, Chicago)Working or Not Working. Single or Married.
Looking for Dads or couples with non-traditional arrangements who have
kids. All ethnicity’s and ages.Please email your name, number, and what city you live in. Also,
please attach a photo of yourself and one your family.Please send to: casting@valentinetv.net
Throw out the TV – that’s what happy people do
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008Happy people spend a lot of time socializing, going to church and reading newspapers — but they don’t spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds.
That’s what unhappy people do.
“We looked at 8 to 10 activities that happy people engage in, and for each one, the people who did the activities more — visiting others, going to church, all those things — were more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. “TV was the one activity that showed a negative relationship. Unhappy people did it more, and happy people did it less.”
While the study can’t definitively say it’s TV that makes people unhappy (versus “unhappy people watch a lot of TV), I think we all know all know it’s likely the former. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise since we all know that gorging on basically everything is bad for you. Gluttony, after all, is a deadly sin. Whether it’s too much steak, vodka, gambling, drugs, or just lying around the beach for years (AKA “sloth,” another deadly sin), too much of a good thing is, well, too much of a good thing.
Perhaps turning off the TV is hardest on us as parents. I know that this week, there will be more of our share of Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E than the kids need. We’ll need it however, if we ever hope to get anything other than canned cranberries on the table on Thursday. But reading this article, which can only confirm your suspicions, might help give me the strength to take the remote control in my hand and press OFF… well, maybe after just one more episode of the Backyardigans.
France bans broadcast of TV shows for babies
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
You can argue about the protectionism of the State, and whether this is too much control, but there is wisdom behind the recent decision by the French broadcasting authority to ban French television from airing TV shows made for kids under three years old.
As with many laws that are put in place to protect those who can’t protect themselves, I think the French have it right here. One thing babies definitely do not need is more TV. The advent of BabyTV in 2006 in the US spurred a national debate and the American Academy of Pediatrics made a pronouncement that babies should be kept from television completely. Now that BabyTV and BabyFirstTV are available in France from foreign distributors, this has become an issue there as well.
As the the French ruling noted, “Television viewing hurts the development of children under 3 years old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as dependence on screens” (AP 8/20/08)
While many of these TV shows are said to be designed especially for babies, in the Baby Einstein vein, the reality is that many parents (guilty as charged, your honor) use these shows as an electronic baby sitter, for even extended periods of time (not guilty on the second charge). The ruling went on to note, “Television viewing hurts the development of children under 3 years old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as dependence on screens.”
Anyone knows that the short term benefit of letting kids watch TV for even a short time comes with an immediate cost. They are usually pumped up for a while afterward, if only to list all the toys they suddenly have to have.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp owns Baby TV. Three companies, Regency Enterprises (a partner of News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment), Kardan N.V, and Bellco Capital, a private Los Angeles-based investment fund own BabyFirst TV.
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