How much TV is too much?

[cori]

Have been getting concerned about DS 17 month televison viewing. He loves the TV and is always trying to turn it on when its off.
I was wondering how much other youngsters watch?
DS generally watches about an 1 1/2 a day, which includes tweenies in the morning, story makers in the evening ( about 1/2 hour) and bits a pieces of news or what ever else is on. is this too much ?

[GeorginaA]

Probably.

In practise my 2 year old watches about the same amount and it hasn't hurt his language development or limited his exposure to other activities (if anything it's given me ideas for new activities to try on occasion).

The main reason ds watches this amount is that otherwise he tends to want me around constantly - the hours he watches is during mealtime preparation where otherwise he'd be upset that I'd shut him out the kitchen for safety reasons. I figure it's the lesser of two evils. We also have half an hour before bed (we like Little Bear on Nick Jr) to give us both a chance to wind down while ds drinks his milk. We still have a story at bedtime.

I asked my hv about it when he went for his two year check and she told me that if his language was in anyway delayed (in fact he was actually "ahead" by her criteria) or other activities were being missed because of it then she'd be worried. She generally went with my "lesser of two evils" approach and would be more concerned if the TV was on constantly as background noise.

He's quite interactive towards the telly, and will chat back to the screen, then wander off and play until something else grabs his attention. He generally sees his parents read or look at the computer rather than watch telly, and he knows that the telly goes off once we've watched what we're going to watch - so I figure he's learning healthy TV watching!

I do confess though, if we've both got stinking colds and are in terrible moods then I rely rather more heavily on the TV to get through the day. I know that's bad, but then some days you just need to get through best you can!!

[scoobysnax]

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no tv or computer use at all for the under twos, and a maximum of 2 hours total tv and computer use combined between 2 and 5 years old.
I am not sure exactly why they recommend no tv for under twos, although in fact my dd had no interest in tv until after she was 2.
Now of course she would be happy to watch tv for hours!

[bossykate]

ds probably watches too much, but that's because he frequently wakes at 5.20am! his interest in thomas, teletubbies etc has been a godsend in the mornings, as it gives dh and i a chance to ingest some caffeine undisturbed. there's nfw we're up to stories or "creative play" or something more "wholesome" at that time of the morning. his language development is excellent btw.

[WideWebWitch]

Ha ha, I like nfw bk, if it stands for what I think it stands for, along the same lines as ffs?
Cori, I really wouldn't worry about it if he's doing other things as well. I recently read an article about older children who are incapable of turning the TV off and it said that it hadn't occurred to many of them that you could turn a television off since for them it had always been there as background. I don't think that's great news from a developing conversation skills point of view or from an other activity point of view (like reading) but I think television in moderation is fine for children. So in answer to your question, I don't think 1 1/2 hrs is too much, whatever the American Ass. of Paeds say - in real life sometimes other things need to get done too and tv gives parents a break and entertains children. I don't know about you but my ds was up for 13 hours or more at that age so as a proportion of his day it's not that much. My ds watched that much I'm sure and his speech and language skills are great too (he's 5.5 now).

[hmb]

Dd 'watched' TV from about 6 months. She took a real interest in TV from the age of one, and would watch Teletubbies from that age. She is still keen now, at the age of 6. She spoke at 11 months, was using 8/9 word sentences at the age of 18 months and had taught herself to read at the age of 3. Her reading age is 2 years ahead of her actual age and her teacher says that her vocabulary is exceptional for a child of her age. An N of one I know, but it hasn't done her any harm.
Ds has also been interested in the box from an early age and he has had some problems with language. These are now getting better. I'm not sure if the TV can be blamed or not.

[Crunchie]

My kids are addicted to TV, aged 4 and 2, but I really don't think they have been 'harmed' by it. I guess they watch about 1/2 hr in the morning (an hour if up too early). An hour or so in the afternoon, 4pm ish, and another hr or so before bed. Since my 2 yr old could count to 10 before she hit 2, I don't feel to bothered!

[codswallop]

me too crunch

[prufrock]

So ks is auditioning for the role of geisha.

I think I'm taking completly the wrong approach to TV then. I am ashamed to admit that the TV is almost constantly on in our house in the evenings. We get home and watch the news, then VH1 classic goes on, after dd has gone to bed dh tends to switch to CNBC for market wrap. So we never realy watch TV, it's just always on in the background. Is that really bad for dd? Please do tell me if so - I just never realised it could be as she doesn't actually take much notice, and even when I put on C Beebies on a Sunday morning she tends to ignore it.

[GeorginaA]

tbh I don't think anyone really knows. There's a big difference between a kid who sits zombified for 7 hours a day because mum and dad won't do any other activities with them than a kid who still has the opportunities for other types of play.

I think there are benefits for having "child centered" play especially when they're young where there are no other distractions, just you following what they're playing with and interacting on that basis. But lets face it, we're not superhuman and can't do that 24/7.

There are certainly some days where if I don't have 3rd party noise in the house then I'm going to go insane. I tend to stick a CD on, but as my CD player is also my DVD player (which then displays a blue screen & logo on the TV) does that technically mean ds gets more telly? If ds is interested we can quite happily "play" on the cbeebies website on the computer for an afternoon - is that as "bad"?

I certainly grew up when TV was considered less evil but then there was far less children's TV programming - only a few hours a day on terrestrial, now kids have cbeebies and nick jr on tap. Is it better now the programming is more suitable for young children, or worse now that it's available all day?

shrug

I think at the end of the day you can only go by what works in your own family. If your dds development is on track and she still gets lots of opportunities for other types of play, then I wouldn't worry too much.

[WideWebWitch]

Prufrock, I wouldn't necessarily say it's bad for your dd but I suppose I personally have a bit of a thing about the tv being on all the time, maybe as a result of my childhood. We weren't allowed to watch it continuously as children and were made to turn it off once the programme we'd chosen had finished. In a lot of ways I think this was quite a good thing since we certainly would have watched tv from the moment we came in until bedtime if we'd been allowed, but we weren't. The result was that we had to go out, play with friends, read books, talk to each other, talk to our parents, walk the dogs, mooch about and generally do other things. My mum even used to put the tv in the loft if she thought we were watching too much, although my sister would get it down and then put it back up when mum was due back, so it was a bit extreme! Even now I'm not a great tv watcher, maybe as a result of this.

I have noticed that if the tv is always on in a house (even with the volume down), then most people in the room will look at it, which is natural I suppose and they'll be distracted from what they're doing or the person they're talking to. But hey, these are just my personal feelings about television, I certainly don't think it's terrible or that children shouldn't be allowed to watch it, not at all. And if you talk to your dd and play with her and she's happy and so are you, then I doubt very much that any damage is being done. I just thought that article was interesting though - the idea that it wouldn't occur to some children to turn it off just made me shake my head in a middle aged way

[Crunchie]

My kids are addicted to TV, aged 4 and 2, but I really don't think they have been 'harmed' by it. I guess they watch about 1/2 hr in the morning (an hour if up too early). An hour or so in the afternoon, 4pm ish, and another hr or so before bed. Since my 2 yr old could count to 10 before she hit 2, I don't feel to bothered!

[Crunchie]

don't ask!

[josiejump]

My personal feeling is that if they are watching prorammes at the right level for them, then no harm done and if anything, some benefit. I haven't really restricted the amount of tv my boys watch, only the type.. i.e. I'm quite happy for them to watch c-beebies for hours, but would not entertain the notion of them watching EastEnders, Fox kids etc. I feel that their language development and general knowledge are pretty good, and haven't been at all hampered by the amount of TV they watch ( on average 2 hours a day and they are 4 years old ). I do insist that it's turned off after tea though, mainly so as I don't have too much aggro in getting them upstairs to bed!

[snickers]

[bossykate]

spot on, www!

ks, well obviously i meant i don't have enough energy in the morning after juicing all that veg!

what is this barney, cubix? obviously the thomas i meant is thomas a kempis on open university...

teehee!

[jodee]

Ahh, well I must be doing a good job, then - ds hardly watches any tv programmes at all these days - unfortunately the tv is used 24/7 as a monitor for non-stop Thomas/Brum videos ...

[mmm]

Steve Biddulph thinks that an hour a day is just about ok. Anymore too much, but it's difficult, isn't it when watching the telly gives one a built in babysitter and you can just get the dinner on or whatever. My 8 year old became so addicted and we had such rows that we don't have a telly now, just a video and she's allowed to watch one on a Friday and Saturday.

[Ghosty]

Like most of you my DS watches telly and I don't think it is a bad thing. He got 'into' the teletubbies at about 10 months ... and now, at 3.6 he watches about 1 hour in the morning (while I get dressed and do chores ... or at the moment bond with the toilet .... ). He then will watch about half and hour to an hour later on in the day ... between 3 and 4pm ... depending on what's on, whether we are in, what we are doing etc. He has excellent language skills and I think that he has learned a lot from some programmes. He learned the word 'frustrated' and what it means from Blues Clues ...
TBH I think the american shows like Sesame Street and Blues Clues are more educational than the TTs (who REALLY annoy me now ... but that's another thread) and the Fimbles/Hoobies/Boobahs ... which are all a bit wierd IMO!!

[tallulah]

When I was at home with DD (now 17) children's TV used to be on at lunchtime & that was it. We'd sit down together & watch it, & that was it for her. She used to watch the serialisation of Narnia on a Sunday, & I didn't think it was at all odd that (a) she could sit through a 50 minute programme or (b) anticipate the programme from week to week at 2 years old- until I had her 3 brothers...

I went back to work when she was 4, & DH let the boys watch TV just about all the time.

It's interesting that she can take or leave TV now, & really isn't that bothered, while the boys get up at the weekend & put it on (my real pet hate) & seemed to be glued to japanese cartoons 24/7.

I'm glad I haven't got little ones now- the standard of children's TV these days is appalling. the "yoof" culture is being broadcast to a younger & younger audience. Give me Sesame Street any day... DS2 learned to count watching that!

[GeorginaA]

I can't say TV today is bad... there's just more of it (so there is more dross, I agree). But there's some really quality kids programmes: Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer to name two off the top of my head. Ds quite often chats back to those.

[codswallop]

"Back pack back pack"!

[anais]

Prufrock, I am very against having the TV on as a permanant background noise. Nothing is gained, and I do believe it may actually be harmful. If no-one's watching it anyway then why not just turn it off?

Tallulah, I agree that 'yoof culture' is being thrust onto our children younger and younger. It seems that one way or another 'society' is determined to make our children grow up too fast


My personal take on it is that tv is fine (and I'm sure beneficial) in moderation, but as with everything it's a question of balance. As long as children are being stimulated in other ways - conversation, books, physical activity, creative activity etc - then tv is a positive force. If it is the only form of stimulation it is then that it becomes a problem.