The Finnlings' television favorites

I am very grateful for Christina’s post “The Slippery Slope that is our TV”. Let me say upfront that I am dealing with this slippery slope right now, as I am in the first trimester of my third pregnancy and can easily slip into a pattern of allowing the television to babysit my children. Thankfully, this is something of which my husband and I are aware, that we are working through, and we are seeking the Lord’s guidance in it. Can we, as Prayer of Hannah readers, agree to encourage each other on to excellency and God’s glory in this matter, and in all other matters of life and parenting?

Now, on to my children’s favorite television shows and movies! We use antenna to pick up our television channels, and consequently receive all major networks, including PBS and PBS Kids. My children, Georgia who is 3 ½, and Baxter, who is 20 months, enjoy several shows on PBS Kids. If we did not have this channel, we would not watch much television, if any at all. Georgia’s favorites are Super Why!, Dinosaur Train and Word World. Baxter will generally watch a little bit of whatever G is watching, of course. When we have the privilege of visiting of grandparents, and take advantage of their cable, my children LOVE Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and Special Agent Oso. I have purchased a couple of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes on ITunes that I keep on my computer for ‘emergencies’, and those are special treats for the children. In addition, my family subscribes to Netflix, and as such we have access to their Instant Play catalog. G and B love watching episodes of Kipper, SuperWhy! and Angelina Ballerina on the computer. Georgia especially finds Kipper amusing right now—Something in these simple, short episodes about a British dog named Kipper make her laugh every time. I enjoy hearing her laugh!

A confession about myself: I love musicals, and I have passed along that love to my children. My kids enjoy Mary Poppins, The Music Man, Oklahoma!, and The Sound of Music. Mary Poppins was one of the first movies Georgia and I watched together—one of us was sick, but I don’t remember which one. She didn’t watch all of it, but she enjoyed the singing and dancing (and the penguins, of course!). They also enjoy several Disney cartoons, with Georgia prefers princess movies like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, while Baxter likes boy movies like Cars and Peter Pan. Right now, though, G’s favorite movie is what she simply calls “Jessie”, or Toy Story 2. As an aside, we fast-forward through different parts of movies if they are inappropriate/scary/too slow. For instance, in the movie Oklahoma! there is a dream dance sequence that is long and drawn out, and involves women dressed as bar girls in the wild west—we fast forward through that!

My general rule of thumb is to not allow my kids to watch more than 1 – 1.5 hours of television a day, with movies being watched a couple of times a week. We will have several days that the television is not turned on at all, and then a few days where we watch PBS Kids for 30 minutes to an hour every morning. It varies. Life changes. I get sick, the kids get sick, it rains, it pours, I am lazy, it is a reward—you know the drill. Most importantly, we try not to allow the television or movies to rule our lives. We do not HAVE to watch a show every day or every week (that applies to me and my husband as well) and we do not HAVE to watch a movie at a particular time.

Just for fun, a few of MY favorite television shows are The Today Show, Mythbusters (via Netflix), NCIS, and Glee (current shows), and West Wing, Frasier, and Star Trek: TNG (cancelled). What shows do you, our readers, watch—not your kids, but you?