Like most of the modern family today, I have an alternative babysitter at home as well, this babysitter is also my kids appetiser. I have developed a love hate relationship with it. Tadaa… my alternative babysitter is the TV.
Yea yea, when talk about letting kids watch TV, there’s certainly alot of arguments and surely is a controversial issue. Almost every parents talk about, be it a must or not.
When JS was still very young, even newborn time, my mum kept insisting that I shouldn’t let her watch TV. According to her (she’s a pre-school teacher and attended alot of courses) that the fast changing screen on the TV will cause young kids to have less attention span when there are put on the desk to do paper work. She also claims that prolong watching of TV will also cause eye problems, even when we place the baby in front of the tv and the baby is not watching, my mum would claim that the frequency from the TV will cause harm to the young kids. Asked her when is the best time to introduce TV to kids, she said best is when they are pre-schooler and also must have limits. Though as much as I would love to take her advise, I find that I really can’t get rid of the idiot box from my kids.
When JS was at the sitter’s place, she was granted 1/2 hour a day on Sesame Street. Now that we have Astro Play house Disney, I have actually increased her TV time to 2 hours per day. One during lunch time, another at dinner time. Yea yea, again the expert say no eating in front of the TV. But this is the way I get to feed my kids fast. Of course during weekends they get to watch the TV longer, because SIL, MIL will on the TV for the kids, they claimed that it’s the best way to occupy the kids, shut their mouth. . TV has since became their appetiser.WH will follow and glued in front of the TV. He has also became quite an addict already. I can’t deny that sometimes when I’m real busy and can’t entertaint the kids by sitting beside them, TV is my best babysitter.
Why have I not listen to my mum’s advise? Because I can see my kids benefit from the TV. They pick up new words, they learn about things happening around, some basic knowledge, science.
At the same time, I cannot deny that my mum is totally wrong. Eventhough JS can recognize all the alphabets, capital and lower case, can recite or rather “chant” from 1 – 19 and she can talk and argue like a lawyer buruk and can use sophisticated words, but her attention span and concentration is very low when I try to teach her things. She cannot graps the concept of putting alphabets together to form words, spelling bee is very poor, she might be able to recognize words by it form and on a high repetition, but she just can’t concentrate. When teach her maths, she can’t focus on counting those drawings, unless is something physical then she can count, her mind sway halfway during counting. She doesn’t know the sequence of the number. When asked what comes after 6 or any other number, she became blur. Tried to teach her, but I can see her mind wandering far far away and lack of interest no matter how interesting I’ve made the subject. Even those alphabets games on the computer to made up words also she can’t focus. I got very “mang zhang” when teaching her. In side me, I wanted to yell at her “Why you so stupid, Why so bodoh, sent you to school read 屎片啊.” Of course just in side my self yelling that way, but she’s really testing my patient and I lost it very fast when she just can’t follow and grabs the concept.
Another example is my brother. Brother and my age gaps is four years. When I was in primary school, brother is still a pre-schooler and dad is the one looking after him in the afternoon when my mum and me were at school. Being a man, and also dad is busy giving tuition at home, he would just on the TV for my brother in the afternoon. When my brother enter school, he has difficulties on focusing as well. Teaching him, coaching him with his homework was a very tough job for my mum and a heart breaking task.
JS’s godbrother is another example. During pre-school, because his mum didn’t want to put too much pressure and stress on him hence has not really push him much academically. He watched alot of tv, play alot of gameboy, playstation. When he started standard 1, he also had problem to focus. Until now, he’s in standard 5 already, still his mum having a real headache coaching him. His result really 满江红 (all red), everday “eating” 藤线煲猪肉 (being caned by his mum) , he can sit in front of the book but the mind wander off, daydreaming and in a daze. Just like my brother, when ask him to study , he would find excuses, thirsty lah, hungry lah, sit 5 minutes then want to walk away to do something else. I can see myself following JS’s godmother footsteps. Being “mang zhang” and impatient when coaching my kids on doing homework. I remembered seeing JS’s godbrother’s arm with this huge patch of bruises, the mum said that she got so angry teaching him one day that she lost her temper and threw something as his son. (其实是打在手里,疼在心. 为人父母也真不容易.)
What shall I do now? Cut down TV or totally ban it. But how long can I last without one, I have actually gotten quite dependent to the TV now. Shall I just sit back and relax, let JS progress with her own pace, anyway shes’ just 3 year and 5 months old now (excuse for her not to be brilliant, 自我安慰), let her catch up when she’s much older maybe 6 or when she’s in primary school. But again, we are sending her to chinese school, which mean more pressure and 1 extra subject to teach (成语,造句,写作) on top of others subject, can she cope??
Posted by dragonmummy 
Posted by dragonmummy 
