to ban TV and computer over the summer holidays

[zorgmoid]

Is this actually child cruelty?

I'm not usually so lentil-weavy but I'm tempted to see if they'd make their own entertainment. I'm aware I could be heading for a fall on this, after, oooh, 30 minutes of holiday time, but it's worth a try, no?

Or is it utterly mean?

YABU

My Ds managed to use his laptop etc as well as do other stuff

in fact he taught himself to play guitar one summer holiday using the internet

While I think it's a great idea in principle, I think it may be harder on you than them in practice :o

Maybe limiting it to an hour a day and / or using it as a bribe reward for good behaviour

I watch loads of tv, always have, but I'm too busy until the kids are inb bed and I've finished jobs.

My kids (9, 6 and 6) are not arsed for it at all.

I think there are several reasons for this.

Ds1 has aspergers, and save for a brief period when he watched peppa pig obsessively, has never shown any interest.

The tv is small and in the small living room that has no toys in it. The conservatory has their toys in it and is next to the garden so they gravitate there.

Being twins ,dd and ds2 have a readymade playmate at all times.we also havbe kids over a lot because we have neighbouring families.

I have never applied any rules about watching tv and I have never suggested tv is a bad thing (as I said, I love it), so there is no tension around the tv.

We haven't got any computer games stuff because I just can't countenance spending that much money on a present when we've got holidays to save for.

They watch it if they're ill or tired (I usually have to suggest it), but we can go a week without it being on in the day and longer in the summer.

I would like to watch a dvd with them, but they never want to. They seem to have bypassed kids tv except for deadly60 and they prefer you've been framed or something tragic like the crystal maze-usually they'll insist I watch it with them.

Actually I think the twins may have realised that I wnated to use the tv as a babysitter when they were little and had toi get on with stuff, were having none of me ignoring them, and have rejected it ever since.

I wouldn't ban it-makes such a big deal of it, perhaps move it?

duck your eldest DS sounds better than my two (11yrs).

Perhaps it's because they never gte to watch it term time (too busy) and it was only the first week of the holiday. Maybe by now they'd have got bored anyways and moved on.

I just got very impatient and implemented a (consensual) limitation.

This evening I locked the kids programs on our Sky + I don't mind the kids watching TV at all but I'm sick of them watching Sponge Bob and icarly over and over again. I find icarly extremely irritating and pointless!

Yanbu. I sometimes ban it all for a week or so when they've been watching too much or nagging for it. It's actually surprisingly painless, they just get used to doing other things.

We have 10 days in a tent and then 10 days away from easy tv or computer games, so we will have 3 weeks of the 6 week holiday without all the tv and computer games and that is quite nice. It's one reason I like camping. We all have to read and play games and talk.