We only allow our children to watch 1 hour of tv max per day. Usually it is much less. Most often they only watch educational dvd’s like muzzy, wink to learn, or signing time. The only tv shows we watch are Little Bear, Word World, and Ni Hao Ki Lan. I don’t let the children watch shows alone until I have watched with them. You don’t have to pay that close of attention to get the gist of what is going on in the shows.
I will say, I will let my children watch educational programs. Watching TV programs with leaning objectives behind.
We don’t have a T.V. So we don’t watch any.
The recomendation to not let you child watch t.v. if they’re younger than two is great if you have an only child. But once older siblings are watching I don’t know how you can ban the younger ones too well.
I let my kids have 30 mins a piece of time on the computer. I prefer this as computer time is at least spent making choices and interact by clicking and such instead of just zoning in front of a screen. I have a Mac and it has great parent controlls. I specify what websites they can go on and the computer is set to automatically log them out once their 30 mins is up.
I let them have their computer time only after they have had a good lunch followed by one hour of “quiet time” in which they have to #1 be in their room, and #2 they have to be quiet. (they can nap, read, color, and play quietly).
We watch movies once in a while. But not very often, and even then I’m very selective. I’m trying to expose them to “finer” entertainment than just the latest popular thing. We only go to the theatre if the show is free or super cheap.
I also have a soft policy about reading the book version before seeing the movie.