TV Makes Her Crazy

A friend asked us how the no TV situation with Anna was working out, so I thought I'd revisit that topic a bit with some surprising conclusions.

TV makes Anna bonkers. Nutso. Cuckoo.

Since turning off Little Einsteins, Wonder Pets, Backyardigans and so forth, Anna's behavior has improved dramatically. She is less whiny, she's actually listens when spoken to, she thinks about things when you ask her questions. She has also gone back to playing by herself in little imaginative scenarios with her toys; flying and swimming and rescuing and adventuring all within worlds of her own creation. She's reading more, too, rediscovering books that were getting a bit dusty and lonely in her absence.

Still, the biggest thing is that she has not been having tantrums on a regular basis like she used to, and when she does start to get upset, I am able to communicate with her through the tantrum and help her to diffuse her stress. It's an amazing change.

I wasn't sure if it was really the TV shows or just a fluke of toddlerhood, so a couple weeks ago I recorded and let her watch a Little Einsteins as a treat. Know what happened?

She was a whiny brat all day and cried the second I turned it off and argued with me and threw mini-fits all day, asking for me to turn her show back on. That pretty much decided it for me.

She still watches Baby Einstein videos a few times a week, though not every day, but those don't over-stimulate her at all. She seems to simply enjoys them the same way she enjoys listening to her music class CD's, and they are all very low-key educational in much the same way.

While Kurt was so sick I know she was watching some TV and that didn't seem to cause any problems. And while she herself was sick, I let her watch The Goodnight Show for a bit and there were also no problems there. However, I really think that something about regularly viewing of those targeted toddler shows was really scratching away at her sensitivities, leaving her raw and irritable and unable to easily process the rest of her daily life.

So, in short (ha!), TV is still out for our kids. There's occasional mild DVD viewing in the evening and certain shows as very special treats, but in general, it's just not something that was helpful to our family. I miss the easy "babysitter" sometimes, but I'm happy to trade that for a more temperate and giggling little girl.

(Now let's hope I haven't gone and just jinxed the whole phenomenon by speaking the words out loud!)