A Surprise DVD for Stella

Stella received a surprise package last Friday. She went with her mum after school to the post office to pick it up. It was a DVD of ‘The Fairies’ – a popular children’s TV show. Now, one would think that a child of Stella’s age would be pleading to rush home to put the DVD on; the Supergirl actually did the opposite. I wasn’t looking after her that day. After getting her hair cut and dropping by the home of her mother’s client before picking up the fish n’ chips order, Stella had forgotten all about the DVD. It was after she had gone to bed that her mum remembered, when her dad asked about the parcel.

Stella’s mum offered to put on the DVD for her after lunch on Saturday. She took the DVD case to study it. She loves reading anything and everything these days. According to her mum, Stella probably watched 10-15 minutes of the show. When her parents emerged from the study, Stella was over at the art area painting. They asked if she would like to have it turned off and watch it later. Stella replied that she would like to have it on. While her mum was reading the day’s newspaper, she also observed Stella. She told me that Stella didn’t pay attention to the DVD at all. After the painting, Stella went on to play with her doll and then begged her dad for a game of Uno. While waiting for her dad, she chatted to her mum. And when her dad finally came out to join them, the family played Uno. At some point, the show finished. Stella went over to turn it off. She was heard saying, “Oh, it’s finally finished!”
The TV is turned on all hours in many families. It is used to entertain children all day long. Stella’s parents limited TV viewing since she was born. They do this by limiting their own viewing while she is awake as well. A friend of mine who lives in northern country Victoria did the same. Her six year old never acquired the taste to watch TV all day or for long periods. He too has a tendency to quit, preferring to ‘work’ outside after just 10-15 minutes of viewing. A family that I used to work for years ago live in a big house with only one little TV in the family room. The mother made it a conscious effort that TV would not play a big role in their family life. The family can well afford their own mini cinema if they wanted to but the mother told me that she purposely bought the smallest TV available to make it look unimportant. It must be hard planning for children living in Mc Mansions equipped with their own personal in-house entertainment room and TVs or other electronic entertainment fitted in almost every other room throughout the house. That’s a nightmare! Imagine sitting down with 4 children to organize their weekly TV/Media schedules. People actually do this. I read about this suggestion somewhere. I guess being prepared in advance is way better than to fight the children over movies and time permitted every night.