I know that is not a very PC thing to say, but I honestly don’t care.  I love TV for many many reasons.  I’ve made you a handy outline below:

1. Being a stay at home mom can be isolating and I can only have conversations with C and the dogs for so long without becoming unfit for outside socialization.  Having the TV on staves off the crazy!

2. This isolation also leaves me somewhat out of touch with what’s happening in the world.  I still won’t watch network news or news channels like CNN because they also drive me crazy with their extremism and panic pandering.  However, watching the Today show or talk shows like Ellen or Bonnie keep me somewhat in touch, especially because when you have a baby you never totally watch anything.  You half-watch everything.  So half-watching Today in the morning keeps me half in touch.

3. When I do happen to come across disturbing news, programmed TV makes me feel better.  Seriously, I know that sentence makes me sound like I’m either 10 or socially stunted, but it’s true.  Motherhood (and pregnancy for that matter) seems to have made me feel everything that much more keenly!  I was already a bleeding heart liberal pre-pregnancy.  Since having my son, every tragedy breaks my heart.  I imagine what it would be like to lose C in every tragic death story or how any injustice would cause C suffering in the same situation.  I feel my duty to society all the more deeply, desperate to contribute something positive, all the while conscious of my primary duty to my own family.

When it all begins to seem like too much I have TV.  I get a chuckle out of Liz Lemon’s frustration.  I lose myself in the cheesy magic of Eastwick.  I fill with joy as the cast of Glee soars with a new song.  (Don’t get me wrong I also have books, friends, and a loving family, but this post is about TV).

4. Sesame Street is AWESOME! C definitely doesn’t get everything that is happening, like what letters and numbers are, but he sure loves those muppets!  When Abby Cadaby or Elmo or even Murray the Monster come on the screen, C’s little face just lights up.  He smiles, sometimes even reaching his arms out to embrace his furry friends.  So while C enjoys the hilarity that is the Sesame Street muppets, mommy gets to enjoy the subtle jokes the writers insert just for parents.  Does C care that Sandra Oh’s cookie fairy was delightfully, perhaps ironically acted?  Does he get a kick out of all the pop songs that have been altered for his sake?  Doe he enjoy that Feist’s song on Sesame Street includes lines like “one, two, three, four, chickens just back from the shore”?  No, he still likes all these funny things, but they’re really there for us grown-ups.  I might not watch Sesame Street on my own, but I definitely don’t mind watching it with little C.

5. Now what I’m about to say may be met with disdain, even disgust, but I’m going to be honest and say it anyways.  I use TV as a distraction for C every morning so I can have a cup of coffee and peruse the paper.  It’s only 25 minutes and it kills me that I do this, but I need this time to get my head on straight or I would be a walking zombie everyday.  So after our morning bottle and a little mommy-baby time, I place C in his jumper in front of the downstairs tv and put on his favorite Baby Einstein, the one about beginning sounds with the bee puppet.  This bee puppet delights him.  He laughs out loud when the bee puppet zooms across the screen.  C bounces up and down in joy as he spends 25 minutes watching this purely entertaining, non-educational video.

Now before you tell me how awful TV is for babies, how C’s little mind is turning into mush as we watch Baby Einstein, save it.  The American Pediatric Association has already done a wonderful job of laying on the guilt for nearly every decision I’ve made that is outside of their recommendations.  But I’m going to side with my psychiatrist on this one (who just happens to be a juvenile development specialist) and say the APA are a bunch of extremists!  Instead, my Dr recommends, do what I think is best for my baby and me.  Do things in moderation, make sure C’s hitting all his developmental markers (which he is, sometimes even early), and try to avoid feeling guilty for needing a little quiet time to start my day.

As my cousin told me, the best mommy is a happy mommy.  And for now, TV helps to make me happy.