Screen Time

Alex and I have been chatting lately about children and screen time. I had this assumption that I was going to be permanently attached to the couch, and thus the television - repeating the feeding and napping cycle - for the first couple months of Baby's life.

However, in baby class, we got a handout about eliminating screen exposure for the first few years of a kids life - including in infancy. This had me in a bit of a pickle. Not because I am afraid I'll miss my homies on Parenthood too much (and by the way, there's no way we're giving up nightly Jeopardy - it's bound to make our baby smarter anyway), but simply because I sort of assumed things like television and iPhones didn't matter in the first few months. I figured we wouldn't have to start worrying about screens and whatnot until the baby started paying attention to the external stimulation. When her eyes start to wander to the nearby flashing colors or noisy boxes, that's when we were prepared to make due without the everyday comforts of 21st century technology.

We've even considered having a "no battery" rule. In other words, no gifts or toys for the house that include batteries. Why would any child want to read something as simple as a book in silence when they could have some over-stimulating device honk, beep, flash, strobe, and essentially throw a baby rave?

Alex, in agreeance with our future, battery-free life, made this "poignant" analogy:

"It's like masturbating. If your kid discovers how good it feels to masturbate, why would they ever want to do anything else?"

I'm not sure I understand his exact train of thought here, especially given that newborns aren't typically prone to masturbation, but I think I get the takeaway message. Needless to say, I think we'll play it by ear. I'm sure there will be a laundry list of things that we've said "we'll never do," and life just has a way of not always letting us be in control. Which is just part of this adventure of parenting.