TV And Your Two Year Old

TV – it’s everywhere now. It used to be confined to the little black box, but now it’s on our phones, tablets, computers – some people even have one in their refrigerator!

If there is one thing that is hard to manage when it comes to raising our small children, this can easily top the list. It’s incredibly easy to turn on their favorite show or movie and let it babysit the two year old so you can get something done.

We don’t think that’s all wrong. But you have to be ever so careful with what you allow your two year old to watch on TV. It’s setting the stage for how they think and talk, and even the things they learn.

Watch the video below for our thoughts on TV and two year olds!

I really don’t think you can be too careful with what you let a two year old watch. If we’re being honest, there really is no need for a two year old to ever watch anything, it really comes down to parents needing the tv as a tool to get something done.

I use the TV as a babysitter myself, so I’m not about to shame anyone for doing that. I just would caution you to not let it turn into an all day or “most of the day” babysitter. Realize the things your child might be missing out on because you relying on the TV so much throughout the day.

• Are they getting outside to play?
• Are you reading books to them each day?
• What about time to build with blocks, to color, to put a puzzle together?
• Are you interacting with them on a one-on-one basis?

All of these things are crucially important to the development of our two year olds.

What Kind of TV is appropriate?

Like we said in the video, Disney does not have the best interest of your child at heart. That’s not to say that nothing good has come out of Disney, but our children have seen very little of the common Disney movies out there. You can read more about why we haven’t joined Disney Plus on a previous blog post I wrote.

When our first two were little we were ultra strict with what they watched. Some of the things they normally watched for screen time were:

Moody Science Classics – still a good choice, I still have them!

Measure Once, Cut Twice

Bible Adventures – I still love this DVD, and turn it on for my girls! Sweet Bible stories from the 1950’s.

That was pretty much it! No kidding!

Fast forward years later and we do allow our current little ones to watch a little more than what I shared above.

Our current two year old loves:

• Peppa Pig – even Sean and I think this is cute, but we have seen the new ones coming out are more and more disrespectful to parents, and have more feminist attitudes in them. We gave this DVD to Emily for Valentine’s Day but it’s not our favorite.
• Winnie the Pooh – I dearly love Winnie the Pooh, and for the most part all the movies are sweet. I was surprised that Emily loved me reading her the original stories this year! I plan on going through Hundred Acre Wood curriculum over the summer with the younger girls as soon as the preschool version is released.
• Mr. Rogers – they watch some Mr. Rogers, but some I really don’t like.
• Kipper the Dog – another British cartoon about a dog.

That’s pretty much it. We watch absolutely nothing on Nickelodeon. We don’t like most of the shows that are out on PBS currently. I don’t like shows with crazy music, or shows that are super high energy as I’ve found they make my children to be hyper, and dumb them down on watching the sweeter shows. Even at this point my current two year old wouldn’t want to sit and watch the Moody Science DVD’s as Peppa Pig is much more engaging to her. If all they have are simple, sweet shows to watch, they will be content with it. Be ever so careful with what you allow because once you expand their horizon it’s hard to go back.

Taking a Media Break

Have you ever taken media breaks in your house? I can’t encourage this enough. At times we majorly pull back from what we watch, and sometimes just shut the TV off entirely (to be clear, we only use our TV for watching DVD’s, we rarely turn it on for anything that is on actual tv, and never the news in front of the children).

If you decide to take a week or a month or a summer off TV, just know that the first few days will be extremely tough. You will have children crying and whining, and you will feel so tempted to give in and just turn on the TV (ask me how I know!). But then what happens after that is pretty amazing.

The children start pulling out books and looking at them again.

They play outside for hours.

They are content to listen to audio books.

They play happily with toys for hours.

Once we move out of the shop house and get back into a regular house, I plan on doing an extended media fast. It’s so worth it!

The purpose of this post was not to set down any hard and fast rules, but to point out that what you let your children watch greatly affects their attitudes and spirit. Please carefully pray and consider what you should allow in your own home, and honestly consider whether or not media is truly necessary for the upbringing of your children.