AIBU to ban tv for my dds (age 2 and 4)?

[silkcushion]

Something snapped last Friday. It may have been seeing cbeebies panto for the 100th time or the realisation that they can both impersonate Dora, Diego and Swiper the bloody fox perfectly.

I haven't let them watch TV since then and the howling protests have confirmed it may well have been the right decision.

I am also hoping it may help my dd2 get back into her previously good sleep pattern. She's been waking between 3.30m and 4am for 6 weeks now and it's killing me. She doesn't get out of bed or cry but lies there singing loudly or reenacting episodes of Go Diego Go with her teddies. Sounds sweet but is actually exhausting night after night. It typically ends with her falling back to sleep just as we have to get up!

My girls are in full time nursery Mon-Fri - would you relent and let them have any TV at the weekend?

Tbh I think I would have gone insane long before now without tv. I used to tie myself up in guilty knots about the dc watching it too much but now . But if you think it'll improve her sleep by all means give it a go.

YABU in a total ban, IMO.

I would let them watch a bit over the weekend.

I would let them I watch the programmes that they particularly enjoy over the weekend, but not leave the tv on for extended periods of time. Let them know that they get to choose one programme each and then the telly goes off.

Rather than ban things, and make them instantly desirable, I would just cut right down on the amount.

ok thanks for the opinions.

Have been watching 'Living with the Amish' documentary and am maybe getting carried away with the idea of living a more simple life.

DH thinks I'm being a bit hardcore. Just think we've got trapped in a vicious cycle of crap parenting in the last 6 weeks. Not sure which happened first but the more tired we are the more likely we are to let them zone out in front of the telly for hours!

Having said that we've gone on long family walks this weekend in a bid to exhaust them and that hasn't worked either. How can someons so little walk for 2/3 miles and stil not sleep well at night?

sorry about typos

I started setting time limits on my two (8 & 4) after realising they were really overdoing it on the TV and computer games so they get about 30 mins of screen time a day (computer or TV). Its been a revelation, we talk more, they play more, books get read.

TV and computer games are starting to be a bit of a treat rather than the norm so I would consider allowing some TV on the weekend as a treat but a defined time e.g. 20 mins or two programmes.

Also with the computer games me and the boys often all sit together advising and helping the one playing or commenting on the game so it stops being a solitary activity.

YANBthatU, TVs in every home is really only a recent thing and it certainly won't kill them.

However - do you intend this to be a long term thing? If so then you need to get rid of your TV or else you're a raging hypocrite plus your DH may well have it on the next time you're out and wants to distract your daughters. If not, you need to come up with some sort of acceptable TV watching parameters, eg 30 mins/ 1 hour a day, or only on a Sunday, or whatever.

You can do but don't expect to get anything done!

Do you limit them to Scabies where the advertising is implicit rather than overt?

Kids TV is sooo crap! Such a waste of time when they could be doing more exciting things involving moving around and imagination. Maybe you could let them have one hour on a sunday and a Saturday IF they manage to sleep through? Use it as a reward. Choose what to watch and put a timer on. Watch something quality and enriching together. A kids nature programme maybe? We are very close to getting rid of the TV ourselves and joining a film club/using iplayer.

My kids watch about three hours a week at the moment.

Do you just go with whatever happens to be on? Why not pick some children's programmes you prefer and record those? There are several CBeebies programmes which are non-cartoons, or educational, or featuring real people instead of characters, for a change.

ZXEightMum, no she limits them to rickets instead :D

I think it's more a question of what they're watching tbh. My niece went through an Angelina Ballerina stage and became the most uppity, pointy nose in the air madam you'd ever meet at age 4. Thank goodness my sil banned the programme and she improved dramatically.
I refuse to pay for the children's channels on sky so dd and visiting children have to make do with the free ones or any of the nature/history channels that we gladly pay extra to have.

Personally I think at that age its easier to have no TV at all than to ration it.

I stopped DD1 at about 2.5 because of the effect it had on her behaviour, The TV "broke." Within a week or so she stopped asking for it. (although I banned ALL TV during the time the DDs are awake - so I had to curb my This morning habit too!)

Life is much easier without it completely.

DD1 is now 5.9 and watches very little (less than 30 mins/week during school time) and life's much easier.

My children don't watch tv. It's not banned, as such, but we just don't switch it on. DD1 (5) seems to need to burn off tons of energy and the enforced inactivity sends her loopy and she is much less able to occupy herself afterwards if she has had it on. DD2 (2) has SN and no interest in it at all. We occasionally watch a documentary together as a family and watched a Christmas movie on boxing day but it isn't an issue as it isn't a habit anymore. I still have plenty of opportunity to get things done - DD1 reads, does puzzles, draws, makes something, plays with her sister etc etc.

Genuine question, I love reading, arts and crafts etc but if you're a SAHM or on ML how do you fill all the hours in a week without a bit of shite TV? For your own sanity I mean?

Blimey. Seems a bit extreme.

If we had no tv I would really struggle to occupy DS the whole day or get anything done - and sometimes, being a bit hyper, he needs some downtime himself or he really starts playing up, especially at this time of year when we can't get out as much as we'd like.

Can't you let them see some educational stuff? My DS (3) is really into Fun With Phonics DVD at the moment. Or Little Einsteins, Alphablocks, Numberjacks, etc... it's not all shite.

YaNbu my children are 8,6 and 3 and they are very rarely allowed to watch tv, I would re-establish your dds sleep pattern first and then limit screen time! When they get used to not having the tv they tend to spend more time playing with each other and reading books and sleep much better!!

Constant repetition is the nature of children.

My little girl recited the Gruffalo about four times every day for about 6 months. At the same time, my little boy was in nursery and constantly singing 'Little rabbit Foo Foo'.

I swear, it was mental torture! I could have unwittingly confessed to any crime. One day, I was stessed out trying to get a feature written for a women's mag, and my daugter was, beautifully reciting the Gruffalo for the fifth time that day. I rarely, rarely swear, but ....in my head, my head was screaming 'What's a Gruffalo? A f@!!!CKing, soddin pain in the bloody arse, that's what an effin Gruffalo is. I wish that bloody mouse, would just kick him in the bollocks and watch him run off into the effin woods screaming in pain before the snake bites them off and the owl carries them off into the wind'. (OK, so you get the picture).

So, whether its TV, a book, a song... you can't really have a total ban. Though, just for a time, until they are totally 'off' it, it brings a welcome break. Strangely, the 'Gruffalo' book got 'lost', but there was absolutely nothing I could do about Little soddin rabbit Foo Foo.

Sorry to post twice..., but... I've found that no matter what you do, it has the potential to turn into 'too much'.

I just remembered what I did to distract my little boy from singing all the time. I enrolled him into the Playbox Theatre in Warwick (when he was four), and they were doing a production with Michael Jackson in it. He went Michael Jackson crazy. Got all the moves.

At the start of this school term (he's in year 1 now), they had a hero's day. They had to think of somebody in history that had been 'really special'.

I had to tell him that I wouldn't be able to find him a costume to be Jesus, so he was going to have to think of someone else. So he chose Michael Jackson, and wanted to take his CD in to show the class some of his moves.....

'Dear Mrs Walsh, I have told Joshua that under no circumstances is he to do grab ups at school. Kind regards, Mrs Roberts.

And then I prayed a bit.

Ha Gaza at rockets. Rockets even. Rickets! FFzs. Oh I hate my phone.s. znot scribes.but vbrebied. No ceebird. Ceebeebies. Hooray! Yes. Hamburg. Mo not that. Not Hamburg. Yanbu.

YANBU.

We didnt have a tv as a child, my mum had some bloody weird ideas, but it did mean at 18 when someone gave me an old one for uni I would watch two flies walking accrues the screen and I never turned it off even at night. I loved it. I also felt totally left out when pepos discussed children's tv.

But. Now I like that I do not need tv, my DH does, and he wants to get DD watching it every night before bed to wind down. I haven't refused as such but I am convinced the nights she etches tv she wakes more. Too stimulating (she is 17mo) and so we read books. Incidentally I read and read and read, always have, my sis does amazing creative things. I am sure as kids we wouldn't have learnt those skills had we been watching tv. We also used to play dens and mud pies all summer long then fall asleep exhausted and raring to go at 6am. Drove my mother nuts. And yet she still didn't ket us watch tv except for when we were sick.

Internet has changed the exposure to movies, cartoons etc, I have a load of fun very child friendly applications on dd's iPad and she plays with it for half an hour or so most days. Sme might see that as excessive.

As long as they're not watching it vacantly just out of habit, or allowing TV to take the place of more useful, fun things, then watching TV is OK, imho. It can be really helpful in occupying the kids as you get on with other boring but necessary things, e.g. take a shower or whatever. Neither of my DC particularly watch much TV, they prefer to whine at me relentlessly instead, despite my insisting that they should watch the damn thing!