When I was a stay at home mom for the first two years of the little guy's life, television was my LIFE SAVER. It was the only way I could ever take a shower, unload groceries, or make meals without having someone screaming his head off the entire time. I had him watch "educational" stuff - Baby Einstein, Playhouse Disney, Sprout. I still felt guilty, but I had no help from anyone else. Literally, I was on my own. No family offered help, I had no friends, and my husband worked so much overtime that we was gone before we woke up and home after we went to bed for EIGHTEEN MONTHS straight. Sometimes the sounds from the television were the only complete sentences I heard that didn't come out of my own mouth for the entire week.

And he's five now, smart as can be, still watching television.