Is it normal for my six year old son to watch a football game on television from start to finish? We have tried to limit his exposure, but we have even caught him getting up before anybody else in the house to watch these football games. He would watch the games all day long if we would let him.
That's kinda cute that he gets up early. He's passionate about it. I would look at it that way - he's found something he LOVES, which is wonderful. I'd put some ground rules down about it, but it's better than sitting and playing mindless video games. Let him play football too if you haven't already.
I wish my kids were that passionate about something!
I don't know, but I would rather my son watch a football game from start to finish then some of the junk cartoons that are on. In football, there are game rules, strategies, different tactics and plays...if he is following this or at least some of it, I think that's pretty good. I bet it makes him enjoy playing football outside after even more. Just a positive take on it!
If it's two hours EACH day or most days -- that would be too much to me, no matter what he was watching. Is he doing this during the week? If that's the case, I'd say that TV is for the weekend and he can watch one game each day on the weekend, WITH someone else-- you, siblings, his dad, or others, and make it into a group event. That way it's interactive and the adults should also be diverting his attention from the ads, which as someone else noted are not appropriate for kids this young. Ads are a great time to send him into the kitchen to bring out more chips.
We keep TV, for my daughter, for the weekend because weekdays are for school, homework and activities.
Also, it sounds like you must have either a ton of games on TIVO or you have some cable channel that's all football, all the time. I'd find a way to lock it out so he can't access it on his own either on TIVO or on cable; he's six and at that age frankly I don't think they really need to be able to pick and choose what they watch and when they watch it. It's great he's interested but he doesn't need to be up early watching anything, even football (yeah,better than cartoons, but still just too much screen time on a weekday).
Obviously he adores sports! I'd say Go with it.
Is Dad watching with him? Is this their quality time together?
I enjoy watching football with my hubby. Perhaps if you could make it more about father-son time...
I don't see anything wrong with it. He's a sports enthusiast.
Sure, it's normal. Our entire family loves football and, during the college season, we enjoy watching the games together (although our son probably would not turn them on himself if we didn't have them on). It's up to you to limit his viewing time, but I don't see anything wrong with his enthusiasm for the game.
Interesting first question, but I'd say it's "normal".
Heck, I'm a girl and I love watching football. My mom and dad watched football when I was a little kid. Why wouldn't you want to watch a game from start to finish?
It's a game that has four quarters. It's a game based on yards (or inches), it's a game of strategy. It can be quite exciting actually.
I'm not sure why you're concerned about him watching football on TV.
He could certainly be watching a lot worse.
Just my opinion.
One football game, as long as that's the only TV he gets per day, sounds normal enough. If it's one football game plus 5 cartoons and 3 hours of video games, then maybe you have a problem.
My only concern about football would be that the commercials aired during games are really geared toward grown men and are more "adult" than is optimal for a 6-year-old. Can you TIVO some games for him?
So, one game per day, probably fine, but I hope you've got him out and playing in a pee-wee league too.
