Screen Free Week starts 30th April

[kathywhite]

Am I being unreasonable to think that my children should not be exposed to TV or computers. Not just this week which is screen free www.commercialfreechildhood.org/screenfreeweek/ but really for most all the time?

Is it unreasonable to expect them to play outdoors, make up games themselves, do drawing, painting, jump on the trampolene and go to the park instead of sitting at the TV?

I've been told that not letting my children watch TV is making them separate and different, they won't be able to talk about stuff with other kids, I can't say I've noticed this, or noticed that children necessarily engage in long conversations about TV generally.

I've also been told and read some very disturbing research about the negative effects of TV on children's brains and behaviour.

But I do wonder am I being unreasonable?
www.simplicityparenting.com/2012/04/why-screen-free-is-scream-free/

YABU.

HTH

YABU without the telly i would have to talk to them

If you don't want them exposed to TV or computers fine, that's your choice, but it doesn't make you some kind of superior parent. I couldn't give a toss what people do in their own homes but I do hate misplaced smuggery about it. Personally I am educating my 21st century children for the world they will live in which includes a lot of technology.

some of us have children that are 'separate and different' enough without pushing this sort of pious shitwittery

hth

Yes because it has to be one or the other doesn't it?

I mean if they watch TV or use a computer...they can't possibly spend much time outdoors

Moderation and all that jazz....

"shitwittery"

That's just become my most favourite word ever

yabu, thanks to peppa pig my son now eat letticu tomato and cucumber as goerge done it ( he is a very fussy eater)

also when i am doing housework or having 5 minutes on MN the children are watching tv......it doesn't mean it is on all day every day we do other things as well

That's nice.

I won't be participating, as I prefer a more morally-sophisticated, rounded lifestyle, where we consider the value of programmes individually, much like books, and newspapers, as opposed to dismissing any modern medium entirely.

Moral superiority right back at ya!

However, if you're going to go for this, may I recommend board games as a fun activity?

This board game shop is brilliant.

Being able to use a computer is an essential life skill in this day and age

Yabu

I was not allowed to watch TV as a child.

I still can't join in a lot of conversations about films/tv programmes of the 80s, as I haven't a clue what my contemporaries are on about.

Even my DH who was raised behind the wall (in communist Eastern Europe) knows more about British culture of the 80s than I do.

So YABU, and my child/ren will continue to watch TV occasionally, and learn to use a computer.

HTH.

By the way, good luck with banning computers during term-time as they grow up. The exam bodies are going all out for e-learning, and teachers are setting homework based around AQA's interactive exercises. This may especially hold true in language teaching.

Being able to listen to Spanish, French or whatever language segments at home in a huge advantage.

If you could really alter someone's development with a tv someone would have harnessed that incredible power by now. The fact is, you can't. Children are damaged by a total lack of human interaction, true, but if a child doesn't have human interaction then a tv is the next best thing. A child who watches some tv, plays a bit on the computer and also does other things will just be normal child who is used to their environment. Believe me when I was a teacher the children who were banned from watching tv stood out like sore thumbs. Lack of computer skills was a huge problem for them.

So YABU.

i'm rather proud of it too Worra

feel free to adopt it

I think it's a nice experiment (no screens for a week), even if it just interrupts the normal everyday routine and opens us up to different things.

There is certainly evidence that excessive screen time isn't a good idea for children (especially the under 2's according to some literature I've read). I'm not sure if a total ban is the right way forward or not. Life is certainly busier than is ideal and most people have way to much in the way of toys (I know I do), which does clutter the mind somewhat.

I was allowed to watch TV as a child, but was banned from seeing Grange Hill. It was awful not to be able to join in the inevitable break time conversations and even worse to have to try and pretend I had seen it, only to be 'outed' as the weirdo who wasn't allowed to watch it. So, I think everything in moderation is the way forward.

It's worth remembering too that in her own time Jane Austen's novels were considered modern drivel and it was believed by certain people that reading them would be morally damaging for young ladies. Every generation has a certain group of people that believe anything modern is evil, you're part of that group for our current generation.

Oh God No. If I stop him watching, I won't be able to watch. Or MN!

::shudder::

What a crazy notion...

The OP gone for a week then?