I grew up without a telly and can't help feeling resentful about it because we missed out on so much and were socially isolated growing up, tbh. Still are sometimes, you won't believe how frequently nostalgia conversations come up about tv progs ppl used to watch. me & sis roll our eyes at each other "here we go again". I love the tv progs like "I love 1980" cos i feel like i can catch up (so that's what they were talking about!)!
And now, practically all i do once dd's in bed is watch TV - or rather, mostly dvds these days actually, funny how sometimes there's a host of good progs on and other times hardly anything... who was it who said it's not relaxing??? anything else - reading, writing letters etc - takes up far too much energy! All i'm good for in the evenings is vegging on the sofa watching a screen!
oh and for the person worried about the kids growing up terrified watching tv - u should be. it has taken me years to toughen up to things, i was a right wimp. Since dd was born ,having watched loads and loads of films with my boyf, i really have toughened up, it's been good for me! And get this: can't remember what film, perhaps Harry POtter, the very very beginning, the WB symbol approaches getting bigger & bigger, my mum is already cringing! And, I brought Parenthood round for her to watch thinking it was perfectly harmless (oh they have a tv now, since having to get a licence cos i stayed a few weeks after dd was born! I demanded it!) and she had to leave the room at the bit where Keanu Reeves has that car race!!
But, i can totally understand why my parents decided not to have one. dd is 2.6, she watches next to no actual TV cos i can't stand most of children's telly and i'm dreading when she gets older and i need to undo the resentment i feel towards my parents by letting her stay in touch with tv, but she does watch prob about an hour of her dvds per day, somtimes more sometimes less depending on what we've been doing, how i'm feeling etc. (These days it's actually less than that cos she's so good at getting on with her own stuff - and her favourite videos at the moment are the home videos of herself!) (I insist on watching Neighbours & The Simpsons every day, it's Mummy's hour that is, just an excuse for a break! ) and like others on this thread, i have no idea what you'd do if you were ill. I too am a single mum, but i have such an easy dd who can amuse herself very well without tv that i can't use that as a reason to plonk her in front of it to get things done! In fact having a dvd on if i'm for example on here makes me feel like less of a bad mum than just letting her get on with playing with her toys, for some reason! Can anyone explain why?? I think cos TV is generally considered "bad".
ooh sorry that was rather long!