I ask Allaah to bless you and your family, aameen.
All praise be to Allaah AlAleem, I have a question regarding children and cartoons. Do you allow your children to watch cartoons, or certain tv programs, are you selective in what they watch or is tv completely committed from their lives?
As a new parent and one who is aware of the ill effects of tv I would personally prefer my child doesn’t watch anything except that which is beneficial I.e nature documentaries etc
I need advice on this issue as some say if you don’t let your child to watch cartoons your depriving him of his childhood I disagree. Alhamdu lillaah we don’t have a tv at home.
وجزاك الله خيرا
Assalamualaikum. May Allah bless you.
Cartoons of an educative, clean and beneficial nature definitely help children develop their language and other content related skills.
If you are able to gain access to these sorts of cartoons; I would not advise you against letting your child watch these on condition that your child’s time with these cartoons or any activity is done at the right time, right place and for the right amounts of time.
We as well as our children should never overdo anything as everything done in excess has counter-productive results.
At the same time we should never under-do anything and the challenge is always finding a balance and striking it.
I know of many children having learnt Arabic through viewing beneficial children’s Arabic cartoons and many children having picked up a plethora of beneficial general information through these mediums.
To better your child’s experience with cartoons further; please avoid, as and when you can, using the cartoons as a baby sitter, but rather sit with your child and make the cartoon viewing session an interactive one by posing several questions suitable to their age during the viewing process, so that their minds continue to think and analyse, which is better for them, than just enter a trance.
And Allah knows best.
Sajid Umar
better not watch cartoons
jazakhumullahu-khairan
Jazak Allahu Khairan Sheikh..
Assala mu’alaikum,
Excellent advice, brother. JazakAllahu khayr.
To the sisters who would rather avoid letting their children watch cartoons, I would like to offer my opinion from experience.
I am a diligent mother of 5 children alHamdu liLLah. They are all out of teenage now. I used to watch cartoons with them (no tv for a while, and later, no satellite dish or multiple channels). I read kids’ books before allowing them to read them, got them the best-written seerah, aqeeda and sahaba books, and wonderful nasheed tapes, etc.
But then comes adolescence and teenage, and it’s like you can’t recognize your child any more. Each child goes through this stage in their own way, and we can only pray to Allah SwT to help them during this time. If we have been too strict in something, there is a chance that your child would want to explore it now, in open rebellion or surreptitiously. Only your original training and Allah SwT’s help will keep them on track after maybe slipping a bit.
But please consider this stage as natural, not something evil.
To summarize, I would agree with Brother Sajid’s view to give them a moderate taste of these things under your supervision and support, so that they never feel deprived or curious in an unhealthy way.
May Allah SwT keep us and our children safe from the evils of modern-day excesses, aameen.