TV has been there as a main parenting tool from at least the 80s.
Unless your parents were mixing alcohol with your milk, you had better skills than this current era one.
I grew up in rural UK in the 70's - TV was only available for ~4 hours per day (total - no breakfast TV, no daytime TV, just in the evenings). And because of where we lived, half of that was in Welsh, which we didn't understand.
I watched maybe half an hour of TV per day, at most. And that would have been "educational" programs like Blue Peter. I remember coming home from school and waiting for TV to start broadcasting - staring at that weird test pattern with the girl and the clown head, willing it to start quicker. Though we did get The Clangers and Magic Roundabout, and weird stuff like The Tomorrow People that I never understood.
I spent my days riding my bike up and down the lane, building treehouses, rambling through the countryside, playing with Lego, plastic Airfix kits, all of that.
