Who Else Wants to End the Fight for the Remote with your Kids!
You know what it’s like, the game is about to start, your team will be in the playoffs if they win, and you walk into the living room, chips in a bowl and a cold beer, and you’re met with DORA THE EXPLORER.
Your kid has been watching the TV for hours, giving up food, taking toilet breaks during the commercials.
The episode has just started, Dora and Boots have to help a ‘poor purple burro’.
What do you do? Your options seem to be:
1. Send you kid away, crying, and settle down to watch the game.
2. Try, unsuccessfully, to persuade same kid that football is much more interesting than Dora. See 1.
3. Take your snacks and beer to a friends house.
But wait, there’s another option! PVR Dora!
If you get you child to learn how to use your personal video recorder (PVR), they can record their own shows, and watch them while its convenient to you. Instead of saying ‘thats it, turn it off, time to go to school’(or t-ball, or church, or whatever), you can say, ‘we need to go now, record that for later?’. I often use recorded programs while I’m getting the dinner ready. I know that the program will hold their interest and keep them occupied.
The best thing about the PVR is the time it can save. Instead of riding the sofa waiting to find a show to watch, you only have to spend a few minutes a week programming in your shows. You can avoid re-runs (just delete them), and keep up to date with a series, especially if it’s complicated story like 24, or Lost, or my current favorite, Heroes.
You can watch TV when YOU want to watch it, and skip the ads if you want to.
And lastly, if your kids are a bit sensitive, or you’re concerned about what they might be watching, you can exercise the control.
pvr, heroes, tv, remote, technology
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:58 am
It may still seem like a solution but I’d rather reduce the time my children watch TV, and guide them to do other activities that are away from the idiot box. I don’t want them to develop an addiction to TV. Of course, I have to lead by example…
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Thanks for your comments.
I often use this function if the film is one that might be a bit scary (like Narnia for example), so I can watch with my daughter, when its good for us both.
I know exactly where you’re coming from, but at least that way you can vet the shows they watch, and limit the time that they can watch, ie you can watch one recorded episode of Go, Diego, Go when you’ve tidied your room…