PBS and I have a long relationship. When we were growing up, we were only allowed to watch two hours of tv a day and it had to be PBS. (Unless Mom was out gardening, in which case we managed to sneak in one of the other four stations.) We never saw Little House on the Prairie or Father Murphy or whatever else all the other kids talked about. But Ye Olde PBS was great. Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street were young favorites. And Captain Kangeroo, of course. After school was Square One and 3-2-1 Contact! Tuesday was Nova and Thursday was Mystery (which we didn't watch until high school when Poirot was on). American Masters and Great Performances and Nature and Wild America rounded out our PBS experiences.
And it's still the only channel we watch.
But, but, but...
I really, really, really dislike some of the kids programming. Really.
Big, Big World is my least favorite. I don't know why, but I just hate it. SuperWhy is a close second. Curious George is annoying. WordWorld is a creative concept, but grating, at best.
The older kids' lineup is not great either. I don't mind Arthur or Postcards from Buster. But that's about it. And for the littlers, I still like Caillou. And Sesame Street, most of the time. Even Teletubbies.
But, there's more I dislike than I like. And it's yet another good reason to not watch tv.
But I'm still disappointed.
3 comments:
April,
TV makes me crazy - if it wasn't for Kurt (and yes I have my fav shows as well) I think I'd do away with the entire cable network and just have movies (which is a whole other topic).
I used to let Landen watch PBS, but anymore I don't even turn it on. When he did watch he likes Cailou, Dragon Tales and Curious George. We do watch Disney Channel on the weekends in the morning, but I've been trying to limit that as well. We're not perfect by any means.
What he does watch when he gets some tv time though, is Little Bear from OnDemand. I like this because there are no commercials (a lot are sick and not appropriate for children) and once it's over in 20 minutes, it's over. No other shows coming on for him to get interested in.
I was really struggling with the tv issue a few months ago, but we're doing much better. However, all we watch is movies and Little Bear anymore really.
I agree things are disapointing.
I KNOW, Andrea! It's hard to limit it, especially when it's convenient. We didn't watch at all when it wasn't in the living room. But now I find myself using it again.
We rely on dvd's a lot, too. Annalivia loves Kipper which is really laid-back and gentle and I actually enjoy it, too. She's actually learned something from Caillou, so I'm ok with videos/ dvd's of that, too.
I think TV can be an important tool, but MAN is it hard to figure out how much is too much!!
April,
I tend to abuse the TV privilage so I really have to watch myself when letting Landen watch. Sometimes I just want him to go be entertained with it so I can do other things. I'm finally finding a balance and somedays we are better than other days.
I think TV can be great, at times. Especially when you find good wholesome programs, but it seems like there are so few of them anymore. Even the commercials bother me a lot of times.
Someimes I'm shocked at things that bother me now that I have children.
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