Do you have the tv on in the background all day when you are home ?

[IcandothisactuallyIcan]

I don't and my DH says I'm weird as whenever he gets home he puts the tv straight on.

So I'm at home with our nearly one year old all day. DH says I'm the only mum who doesn't watch daytime tv in the background whilst playing/looking after DD.

I didn't have the TV on with my older DS either, although he had daily some tv time everyday once he could focus on it (so from 18 months onward maybe.) My DS had a speech delay and my DH says it because the house is so quiet due to no TV. I of course I do talk to the kids. I do however look at my phone for texts and MN a bit , but try not to all the time, so I guess that's the modern reading a book whilst looking after the kids. He could be right that I'm unusual. I suppose I've never thought to have the tv on and only put it on for the kids to watch stuff. I hadn't considered having bargain hunt on whilst playing cars. Maybe I'll try it for lockdown 2, instead of going out and having occasional company.

I find the spoken word distracting too. I'd LOVE to have R4 on while I work, or podcasts or an audiobook, but I can't focus and listen to talk as well (DJs talking inbetween songs is fine though).

Never. Radio sometimes burbles away in the background. But my mum was very disparaging of people who had the tv on and no one watching it, so I guess we never had the habit.

Plus I'm partially deaf and I'd constantly have to find the remote and turn it down if the door goes or the phone rings!

Surely that depends entirely on what you're listening to and watching?

I think radio rarely sounds like TV drama/films, although I'd say TV sometimes sounds a bit like radio (documentaries etc).

@miimblemomble

Never. Radio sometimes burbles away in the background. But my mum was very disparaging of people who had the tv on and no one watching it, so I guess we never had the habit.

Plus I'm partially deaf and I'd constantly have to find the remote and turn it down if the door goes or the phone rings!

I suspect that your mum's view was more down to cost of running the TV (think of the electricity standby used to use) as opposed to the radio.

In terms of quality, it really is subjective; noise is noise if it's not your thing but, if it's something that you like then it has a value.

I can't have talking stuff in the background, it's either too distracting or I'm not taking it in anyway so seems pointless. I can't sit in silence though, so prefer background music.

Those that like silence to concentrate, how noisy is it inside your head?

Those that like silence to concentrate, how noisy is it inside your head?
Ha ha. I need total silence to concentrate fully (eg detailed work/study) but do have a constant internal monologue. Maybe those who can concentrate with TV/radio on have fewer mumblings in their head to distract them anyway?

Re TV on constantly- I think it's just a habit some people get in to. When DH and I moved in together (he'd been living with his parents before) he was amazed that I didn't put the TV on as soon as came in to the house. MIL has it on all the time but only turns the sound to a normal level if there's something she's interested in.

This is seriously one of the reasons I divorced my husband. He couldn't function without the TV on all the time and it made me want to shoot myself.

The idea that TV is good for children's speech is moronic btw. Your husband sounds like a patronising dick.

@Hesnotlocal I'm a telly on type and I reckon it's to drown out the voices in my head. TV is less distracting

No but I grew up in a household where it was and still is, even if no one is in the room!

@SleepingStandingUp

Those that like silence to concentrate, how noisy is it inside your head?

Silent - I was astonished to learn a while ago that when people talk about an inner voice they actually mean they hear it; I thought it was a metaphor. I also seem to have almost no 'inner eye' (something I also recently learned is a real thing, not a metaphor).

@Hardbackwriter a metaphor for what?

It isn't like it's as loud as an external voice, it's just like the same voice you hear when you read to yourself

A metaphor because I don't hear anything at all when I think. I don't when I'm reading, either, unless I consciously try and imagine one (or, sometimes, if it's written by someone I know or have heard them speak I 'hear' it in their voice). For that reason I've always read poetry aloud to myself, for instance, because otherwise I read but don't 'hear' it. My thoughts, including the absorbing of a book, aren't speech-like to me. As I said, I didn't realise that they are for anyone until fairly recently! These things are always hard to explain because it's hard to describe the inside of your head!

Hahah yes that's why I'm struggling.

So as I write this I hear the voice and then cos I'm watching telly it went "what?" And "yay" at the news and then I carried on writing. I read your message in my voice but of i knew you I'd hear your voice

@Hardbackwriter can you see anything in your head when you read? was shocked not everyone has basically a movie of what they are reading going on in their head...

No, I don't see anything when I read - again, I only picture things with conscious effort and pretty indistinctly.

I don't hear anything if I read your message, and I wouldn't even if it were from someone I know. It doesn't feel to me like I actually read it word by word, though clearly I must. Similarly my thoughts aren't formed in speech-like sentences to me, I translate them as I write.

As I said, my mind was blown when I found out that other people do! I used to teach academic writing and my absolute top tip was to read your work aloud to yourself when proof-reading, and I now wonder if that only works so well for me because I don't 'hear' it as I write and read it back so it's like encountering it afresh, whereas for (some? most? nearly all?) other people it helps a bit but not so dramatically?

Sorry, by the way, I realise that I've now derailed the thread...

@Hardbackwriter wow I can't imagine what that is like. It's crazy how different minds work. I write and have like a mini movie playing in my head as I picture the scene before I write

Never

No the tv is rarely on before 9.00pm weekdays and 8.00pm at the weekend unless there is something specific on. The television would never be on if nobody is in the room ( loo breaks and coffee making excluded!!)

@lovepickledlimes I write - I'm told fairly well, it's always been one of the most praised aspects of my work but maybe that's a slight on the content! - but, perhaps non-coincidentally, not fiction (I'm a historian). I'm also crap at things like interior design, I think because I can't 'see' what it might look like before it's done.

@Hardbackwriter wow. I get so caught in the world that I am reading or writing it feels like a reality to me. It can be both great and good as I can make myself high upset to the point of getting sick. One of the reasons I had to quit one of my university modules as some of the literature that featured not so happy childhoods made me violently ill.

@Hardbackwriter

Sorry, by the way, I realise that I've now derailed the thread...

When I can't sleep I pretend I'm someone else, when o was little it's be that i was grown up now it's that I'm divorced 😂 and meeting a new guy, going on a date etc, like a room com in my head haha but entire conversations on my head. No images as such. O could imagine what my imaginery beau look like but it isn't like a photo image, it isn't overly clear and weirdly I find it harder to do with my eyes closed

No I don’t have it on if I’m not watching something. I think I’d find it really distracting.

Oh my god so many typos.