Saturday mornings. Cold cereal and Scooby Doo. How many parents started out our childhood weekends with this simple ritual? The trick was to wake up early enough to see all of the Saturday morning cartoons because after about 10 am, the children's programming was over until Sunday night's Wonderful World of Disney show came on.
My kids also like to get up on Saturday morning and watch cartoons. And on Sunday. And Monday and Tuesday You know the rest. While I had only a couple of channels to choose from, my kids have access to 24 hour children's programming on several channels, compliments of cable television. If you have a satellite dish, your children have access to even more programming.
More is better, right? Well, not always. With this abundance of television stations, we need to remember that not all television programming is appropriate for all audiences.
There are many parents and grandparents who had the viewpoint that if it was a cartoon show the kids were watching, it was ok. Cartoon violence? Well, who hasn't seen that coyote catch an anvil with his head for the umpteenth time?
The fact of the matter is, when many parents were growing up, with our limited television choices, a little cartoon violence didn't seem to make too much of a difference. Now our kids can choose to watch cartoon violence 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And it isn't just anvils dropping out of the clear blue sky anymore. What kind of violence exists in the cartoons our kids are watching? No, Scooby Doo doesn't go into a rabid rage and maul Shaggy when there are no more Scooby Snacks. But kid's shows have battles, fights, explosions and characters making threats to injure or kill each other. And our kids are choosing to watch this programming over and over again.
So how can we help our kids to make better choices? Most families are unwilling to go cold turkey and give up all television programming, although I give KUDOS to those that are brave enough to do it. You've heard it before
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