I’m constantly trying to limit the amount of television my preschooler watches because it’s become a problem. Her developmental therapist recommended—at age two, mind you, an age when the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that no television be watched at all, and for good reason—that we let her watch Noggin (now Nick Jr.) to encourage her development as it had worked with previous kids with delays in her line of work. I was very skeptical, but she was right in some aspects; my daughter did start to speak more, sing more, and get into finger play activities. However, that could have been a result of the therapy itself, my interaction with her, and her simple progression as she aged.

The point is now that she’s developmentally at her chronological age and I want to keep the TV off, she wants it on—and I mean on all the time. I turn it off after one program; those are the rules, unless she is ill and she gets to watch a movie to keep her nice and resting. That doesn’t stop her from protesting every single day, demanding more television. Though I don’t give in, it’s become quite a headache.

And everyone wants to let her watch even more television! Everywhere we go—from other relatives’ houses to getting her medical equipment to her eye doctor, everyone has the television on—not just in the waiting room, but in the exam room to “hold her attention”! What ever happened to “Look at the cute puppy!” My daughter would totally go for a cute stuffed puppy, too.

I guess it’s just taken for granted that all children watch television and all parents allow it to happen. Once my daughter was talking about how we’d watched the film Ratatouille (and don’t even get me started on the guns in that move…) at the library and one of the librarians remarked, “Oh, and I bet she has to watch it over and over again, huh?” Um, no, not really, because she’s four.

In my own perfect little fantasy world, she’d never watch TV programs at all and only see films on special occasions; however, at four, I think it’s fair to allow her a half an hour program, and I don’t want to be a totalitarian medusa mom who just makes her kid want TV all the more by banning it, either.

I just wonder if parents ever object? If a doctor puts a cartoon on to get kids to look one way—and a somewhat violent cartoon at that!—and a parent spoke up and said, “You know, this is too violent for my son—is there another way we can do this procedure?” Sometimes I wish that parent was me. If she saw her doctors more than two or three times a year, maybe it would be. Even without me crying out like Kyle’s mom on South Park, I have to wonder—these are professionals who went to medical school; why are they promoting television to kiddos?