When my children were young, I always, when I could, watched all their TV with them. I’ve watched more Barney, Clifford and the like than I could possibly calculate. I’ve seen Mary Poppins at least 30 times. The way I did it, it was social. We talked. We reacted to the screen together.
And I pretty much banned the whole Cartoon Network. They were not allowed to watch Sponge Bob, or Rug Rats, or any of those shows. I could feel how pernicious to the affects and intellect they were and remain. As young adults now, both support me in that decision.
Neither got a screen of any sort, other than a Tomagochi for my oldest around 4th grade, because I thought it built responsibility, until they were 12. 12 or so is the end of childhood, at least, and the beginning of the next phase. We figured there were both social and practical reasons at that age for them to get screens.
But I will say that, if I am right, we are breeding a generation of children where Borderline Personality Disorder will become something like the default.
And I will comment on that, that I am reading an excellent book, “Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear Driven Brain”, by Sebern Fisher. In a section I just read, which made me think of this, she said that one of the researchers who wrote one of the more important books on BPD said that if she had her druthers, she would rename it “Emotion Regulation Disorder”.
And in my own mind, I have been thinking of all the Personality Disorders as varying forms of Developmental Trauma Disorder. BPD is simply the basket which catches all the presentations that don’t neatly fit elsewhere. They all share the same roots, though.
The good news is that treatments are being evolved for the worst childhoods imaginable.
All of our problems are solvable. We just need time, and we need people to stop sleep walking.