To think if you watch iplayer and dvd's, you do watch tv?

[lesley33]

Just don't understand how people can say they don't watch tv, but then say oh yes we do watch iplayer and dvd's. Okay you don't use an actual tv to watch programmes, but that is just a piece of hardware. But you are still watching tv programmes and films.

This is not a comment at all on whether it is good to watch tv or not. More frustration that people imo just aren't being honest.

That's true about sky etc Sparta - and if we could afford had sky we would definitely go the whole hog and get sky+ precisely so we could watch stuff when we want.

Problem with both me and DH is that when we have broadcast tv, our standards drop pretty low and we end up watching anything. That's our problem really, not caused by tv itself. Hence my lack of smuggery - disconnecting the telly is entirely necessary if we want to ever get anything done

I was brought up with nothing but tv. Parents ignoring me to watch what they wanted, me being stuck in front of videos on my own. Even now their lives are totally dominated by tv, it's embarrassing to see. I really don't want to be like that.

(obviously they are an extreme example, so not saying everyone has the same reasons etc, just saying why I feel the way I do)

We don't have a tv and I always find this conversational moment awkward, precisely because people assume I'm trying to be superior if I state the facts. I watch crap. I like watching crap and look forward to doing so, and plan which crap I'm going to watch. But I feel as if we just missed the tv era - neither dp not I had one when we got together, which was normal in our artsy-alternative circle at the time, and by the time the dc came and our lifestyle had shifted so that we weren't seeing friends /working every evening, there was i-player and box sets. It was never an ideological position, but there's no tv in our house and I can't now see that we would ever get one. I like the portability of laptops and the fact that no room in the house is arranged around a screen, and yes, also that the laptops belong to the adults and are available by negotiation/prior agreement so the children can't just turn something on.

Fuzzpig I know exactly what you mean. Last night I found DH watching a quiz with Anne Widdicombe presenting. I don't know how much lower his standards could drop, to be honest.
I don't watch TV in the day, when I have DS with me, for the reasons you give. I would rather give my attention to him.
There is an expectation though, that even at his age (just 2) he will know all the CBeebies characters and anything child related off the TV.
He knows Thomas the Tank Engine, from watching the original series on Love Film and Bob the Builder from iplayer. The unrelenting crap that is on throughout the day is not for us!