Is the TV on in your house all day?

How much stimulation is too much stimulation? If you are a stay-at-home parent; What does your child do? Do you constantly have the tv on? What are the effects of having so much background noise? I am no expert on that question, but I am pretty happy with how my husband and I have decided to raise our child and what we have agreed on as far as noise during the day. We read a lot of books before our daughter was born and even just after she was born. We both weren't completely on the same page about the tv. My husband thought it was o.k. to have the tv on as "background" noise when he was home with her and she was really little. I disagreed. One day I found an article that talked about keeping the tv off until your child is at least 2. Why you ask? Well, the article stated things like...if you are the parent and you are watching it you may get focused on the tv and not pay as much attention to your child. Another point, even if your child isn't paying attention to the tv they hear it in the background and it can diminish their ability to learn how to fantasize and pretend play. Both of these points hit my husband pretty hard. From then until the present, the tv has been off when our daughter is up and around. Sure, for very special occasions such as President Obama's inauguration or the olympics, we had the tv on but 99% of the time it is off. Have the benefits been worth it? Oh my gosh yes!!! The creativity and pretend play she is involved in is amazing. She sits and plays with her puzzles, or takes out her books, or musical instruments. She plays with her dolls and stuffed animals, talks to them, takes care of them. In her crib in the morning and after nap she plays with all her animals and dolls. The other morning I walked in to get her at about 7:20 and she asked me to turn the light off and leave. So I did and she played and talked with her dolls for another 30 minutes. Developing this sense of play is so important and I have to think that having music on, or nothing on instead of the tv has given my daughter the opportunity to develop this part of her and I love watching it day in and day out. It amazes me what she does each day as she becomes more independent in her playing. Again, I am no expert but I do have strong beliefs on the amount of tv kids should be watching a day from when they are very little to school age. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.