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Programs That I Allow My Son To Watch On Television and WhyApr 10 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line In my personal opinion, a child should have a limited selection of programming that can be viewed in the home. It’s probably been at least three years now since I lost interest enough in regular programming to the extent where I quit purchasing a TV Guide for the fall previews. The reason for this was that I found programming so disgusting for my children to watch that I decided that the broadcasting on the major networks was inappropriate for my children’s development and moral value systems. Even though all of us as parents have reasons to want to monitor our children’s observation of television, I have a greater reason because my youngest son has autism. He will echo and memorize parts of television shows and movies and then repeat them at inappropriate times. The Weather Channel The Weather Channel is probably played more in my home than any other channel. We are always constantly interested in the weather and I find that this is an excellent learning tool for my son to learn more about meteorology. Public Television We have two public television channels in our area that has excellent programming without commercial interruption with educational, cultural, and entertaining features that my son watch unsupervised. He likes Arthur the most probably, but when there are nature programs, he likes those as well. The one program I like to watch though, Antique Road Show, he absolutely hates! Selected Cartoons Like all children, my son enjoys cartoons. However, I do censor what kinds of cartoons that he can watch. Currently he is allowed to watch Tom and Jerry, most Looney Toons, Disney, or Hanna Barbera cartoons (the classics as I like to call them), or Scooby Doo. I do not allow him to watch Batman, or any dark or violent action cartoon on any media. Old Television Series Because I feel that the current selection of television series are inappropriate for my son to watch, I allow him to watch the following series at home on TVLand, Nick at Nite, or other cable networks. The Cosby Show, Family Matters, Mork and Mindy, ALF, Happy Days, America’s Funniest Videos, Home Improvement, The Three Stooges, WKRP in Cincinnati, M*A*S*H, Night Court In reality though, he is more just "present" in the room for Night Court, M*A*S*H, and WKRP in Cincinnati. Those are MY favorite shows, I watch them when he is in the room. Probably a better comment about those in particular is that I allow him to be in the room playing while I watch those particular shows rather than him actually viewing them intently as he would the others. Personally, from the list I gave above, ALF and The Three Stooges are probably his very favorites. Animal Shows Because my son loves everything about animals we watch the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet quite frequently, especially if there are African animals within the shows. These channels are very educational and I enjoy their programming. Religious Programming In the early morning, I’ve always watched Changing Your World with Dr. Creflo Dollar, Jr. My son now wakes up with me and watches this program. While it can be argued that he may not understand a lot of the teaching that is going on, I have to believe that starting his day off in this way has helped him a lot. It is his choice whether or not he gets up that early though because the program comes on at 5:30 a.m. I’m of the belief that starting off with God makes the day go better, and it really appears to me that when my son watches this program, he does have a better day. Major League Baseball My son is a die-hard Atlanta Braves fan and he will watch baseball every day if you let him. This is very educational for him, as he has learned how the game is played, the statistics of the game, and has learned to take that enthusiasm to Turner Field to watch the Braves play! The Alternative Believe it or not, we’ve been turning the television OFF a lot lately. My youngest son would rather listen to music on the stereo and play a computer game while I read a book. He’s always loved music and has learned to sing along with a lot of the selections. An additional alternative for us is to watch videos. We have a very extensive VHS library of mostly G and PG movies that my son is allowed to play on his own. We own most of the Disney movies and many more live action classics that he finds awesome. Recently he’s been more interested in action features and I’ve recently purchased the Amazing Panda Adventure which he enjoyed very much. In Conclusion In conclusion, I really believe that the way that I’ve handled the television situation in our home works out the best for our family. Because my son has a great deal of input about what videos can be viewed and is able to make a free choice, we do not have arguments over what he can or can not watch. He knows the rules of the television and that at certain times I watch certain programs, so there’s no arguments when M*A*S*H comes on at 8 p.m. Other than that, we seem to have a happy medium where he is able to enjoy himself and I have no problems with his watching inappropriate content on television.  |
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