TV On?

For a long time, these were the most frequent people seen on our television:

or any other cast for that matter

But now, these guys dominate our tv landscape:

                                           

Colton is obsessed.  It all started a couple months ago.  He had been reading some "Sesame Street" books and when I discovered it was on tv at 7PM (right after his bath and before his 7:30 bedtime), I put it on to see how he would react.  Let me preface this by saying I had tried to introduce Colton to television a couple of times before, just hoping to get in a few minutes of quiet time from a normally non-stop tot.  Needless to say, he had never really taken to my tv attempts.  But when "Sesame Street" came on, he froze, sat, cuddled up to me, and watched it...for 30 minutes (and only stopped then because it was time to go to bed).  

We started watching it when we would think about it until one night Colton came out from his bath and handed me the remote, clearly frustrated that "Sesame Street" was not already on the television.  From that night forward, we have watched it nightly with him.  Honestly, it is one of my favorite times of day.  Colton has always been a very active, wiggly, non-cuddly kid, but when he is watching "Sesame Street," that all changes...I love our cuddle time, and must admit it is very tempting to do it more often.

Especially because now I have started to notice that "Sesame Street" must have alerted Colton to the fact that the tv actually has entertainment value.  I am one of those people who need a little background noise, so I usually have the television on.  As Colton has gotten older, I have been careful to at least have it on G-rated stuff: stuff like the Today Show, Ellen, or one of his shows.  Again, until recently he paid no attention, but now I have noticed Mickey Mouse, Curious George, and the Cat in the Hat catching his attention...not for as long or as deeply as "Sesame Street," but enough to slow him down and bring out a quick round of cuddles. 

I take my role as stay-at-home-mom very seriously, as in I know how lucky I am to get to spend my days with him and therefore take it as my duty to do as much as possible with him: our lists, the park, playing, whatever!  I swore I would never let the tv serve as a babysitter or even that he would watch it for more than 30 minutes a day, BUT...it is so darn tempting!  To justify it a bit, at least we are talking about educational stuff, but still?!?  

What do you all think?  How much tv is appropriate?  Is it fair to turn on the tv just because I am craving some cuddle time with my boy?  What is the balance for this kind of thing?