If you were born in the 80s / 90s, did you watch TV as a child?

[Cigal]

I have home videos of me and my siblings watching the TV sat on our little chairs.

I feel bad ever letting DC who is 1 any TV but then remember I’m fine and I shouldn’t beat myself up when I need to e.g. do the dishwasher without DC pulling a fork out to help 🙃. Or when I just need 10 mins to recharge.

Mum guilt is hitting me today as I’m prepping for Xmas stuff and so have put the TV on (apparently under 2s aren’t even meant to have it in the background?!)

so… Just wondering if anyone else remembers watching TV when little and now are also ok?

Yes! Literally every evening and every Saturday/Sunday morning!

Or I guess not specifically 80/90s kids, anyone! I am just on the 80/90s border

I was born in the early 80's and no, I didn't watch TV as a young child. I saw some bits when I was at friends houses and perhaps started to watch some on my own maybe 8+.

Yes of course! It was so different tho then. Children’s bbc and itv afterschool and always sat and sun mornings. Breakfast tv was completely amazing I remember
we only had one tv so in the evening it was grown up shows. sometimes family shows too x

Yes but obviously there were set hours for children's TV

However, there is a big difference in the frame rate of what we watched, Sesame Street, Play Days, Thomas, Flintstones, Jetsons and Scooby Doo etc and the newer versions.

The newer versions have faster scene changes, moving backgrounds etc which all adds to the overwhelm and addiction as it is a dopamine hit. There is quite a lot of research on it. So if you can I'd stick to watching older style shows, you'll probably find them on YouTube or DVDs in charity shops or shows that have real people in them or puppets as that is better than the fast paced cartoons

Yes, I remember watching TV after school and at weekends, and I’m sure I watched it as a toddler as well (my older siblings would have been watching TV so I expect I’d have watched it too). So don’t feel guilty!

The only thing I will say is that TV was much slower paced in my childhood (1980s) than it is now, and I know there are concerns about fast paced TV affecting children’s attention spans. So when my DD was a toddler, she only ever watched CBeebies as the shows seemed calmer and were often educational - things like Abney and Teal, the Twirlywoos, or the Clangers Then there was stuff like Numberblocks and Hey Duggee as she got older. I quite enjoyed some of them!

Born 1981.Fondest memories are of coming home every day after school to watch Bosco and the Den (I'm Irish) .

Remember watching lots of TV and parents borrowing a video player when we all had chickenpox to entertain us and watched An American Tale about twenty times.

Please park the guilt.
Firstly you need the break and a method of distraction.
Secondly this idea children need to be engaged in productive meaningful activities is definitely a naughties parenting idea. Throw on the TV and relax.

If it makes you feel any better OP, my youngest who is 2 any day now has watched 'We're going on a bear hunt' twice already today 😂 sometimes needs must if you have stuff to do. It never did us any harm!

Yep, quite a bit but we were outside loads or playing in our rooms too, Saturday and Sunday morning was always cartoons though

Yes and we do for my 4yo but with relatively clear boundaries - 90% is from iplayer, no YouTube at all. We've some older dvds of older series, and a handful of films that we think appropriate. We don't automatically assume U means he'll be fine with it either so also nothing we haven't seen. We did have try wreck it Ralph and said no more after he started 'smashing hands'

Yes I watched loads of tv. But it was less "instant gratification"

You had to watch thr boring stuff before getting to thr good stuff, and everything was less "intense"

My cousins had cartoon network and I was SO jealous!

Only BBC. Soaps and Grange Hill were banned in our house.

I’m a 70s/80s child and I watched TV on the BBC. It was adult programs after teatime and we watched a lot of David Attenborough! My dd mainly watched CBBC, Disney and Julia Donaldson when she was little. Invariably she would also be colouring in or doing another activity at the same time. She is 13 now and absolutely fine!

Thank you everyone! Yes I also try to put less “intense” stuff on and try to save it for when I need to. I guess as long as I’m doing my best that’s what matters

Yep, every morning before school, plus early morning kids TV at the weekend. I was only allowed to watch BBC though.

I was the same as you today, OP - getting prepped for Christmas, so DS (nearly 3) had more tv than I'd like to admit. He just won't easily play by himself yet! He's had a lot of screen time during the last 2 years, and his speech and knowledge amazes us everyday- tv isn't all bad. I try to stick to the less stimulating things - he likes things to do with his interests - sea creatures!
When I was younger I enjoyed Noddy, Pingu, The Rugrats to name a few!

Early 90s and literally constantly lol! I was shocked when my mum parked my daughters highchair in front of the tv to eat when she was about 1, and she was like “that’s what I used to do with you!”

We had Sky too so no “calm BBC stuff” excuse it was all Cow and Chicken and Ed, Ed and Eddy

We watched a bit after school and then Saturday mornings. I also remember clearly all the Sunday night viewing of things like Lovejoy. As soon as I got into the Australian soaps I watched much more!

Born in the 70s and I remember watching tv all the time.
I can still remember how my father convinced me that he loved Barnaby the Bear so everytime it came on I used to drag him in to watch his 'favourite' show with me!😄