TVs influence on kids

Ellie has a new friend! She finally warmed up to our dog Hunter. She went from being terrified of even being outside when the dog was loose to hugging him in one day. So what made this change? A movie.

We watched "Because of Winn Dixie" for our weekly family movie night. This is an excellent book and movie about a young girl who takes in a stray dog and the influence that the dog has on her and the community. The girl takes care of the dog and talks about the dog being her best friend.

The next day Jeremy was working on the campground and took Ellie along with him. He encouraged her to let the dog come with. First he taught her to ignore Hunter and how then the dog would ignore her. So she went along with it and sure enough, the dog ignored her. Well, soon she wasn't happy about that and was calling him over to play with him. And just like that, they were best friends. Now she is asking to go outside and play with the dog every chance she gets.

My lesson in all of this is how much of an inpact what we watch has on her. Just one movie, just an hour and a half, just one family movie night, changed her attitude about the dog (and probably dogs in general) for life.

So I have to ask what would happen if I let her watch whatever she wanted? So many shows and movies have subtle things that as adults we don't think much about, but may be having a horrible influence on our children. Movies/TVs often feature sassy kids, no respect for adults, poor parent/child relationships.

I do guard very closely what my children watch. We don't watch much more than the family movie night. The thing I've learned most from this is to watch out as Paul gets older. Ellie is so sensitive that I am VERY careful of what we watch so that she doesn't get scared. But Paul is another story. He is willing to watch anything. So I believe I will need to tread carefully here. I will continue to pick up movies whenever I can find them for cheap at garage sales and the like so that we have a good supply of things to watch that I can preview if necessary.