To be struggling this much without a TV?

[Bananaandraisins]

We are in rented accommodation and can’t get the TV to connect.

I never thought I watched a lot but I am really missing it. I just want to be able to put a bit of CBeebies on for the kids and watch the odd programme myself!

My TV is pretty old, not very smart. Roku works really well with it.

I can’t think of a better habit than watching a good drama on telly like Succession or Better Call Saul or Sherwood. Much better habit and more intellectually challenging than reading a probably not half as well written book.

Also, you’d miss out on Frasier so…

*I dont like watching things on a laptop and dont like watching things on internet channels like youtube or other things, I like telly thats on the telly.

Same.
@Bananaandraisins can't you cast iPlayer to the TV from your phone or use an HDMI cable from your laptop?

Not ideal but you can buy special magnifiers that you prop your phone in a special holder and it makes your phone small telly size - might help with the toddler not pressing buttons

Google Chromecast to cast iPlayer from your phone, Roku stick or HDMI cable from a laptop to your tv could be some other options

If your internet works get a Now tv box. You can watch everything via it. You just plug it into your tv. Don't need an aerial.

I meant you go into the garden too. Have a bit of a relax while your toddler runs himself ragged. He might fall asleep later so you can get some housework done or he might just wake up later in the morning.

This. ^ Some people act like the parents of yesteryear were somehow more superior, because they didn't 'stick their kids in front of the TV or games console!' As the above poster said, parents used to just chuck the kids out til dusk (when they weren't at school obvs!) to play with their mates. Or farm them out to relatives/grannies for the day or weekend. How is THAT any better???

I don't EVER remember my mother playing with me or taking part in any activities, or taking me out on day trips or coming to any school plays or sports days or anything. Dad used to play rounders and table tennis with me, and I would go with him to the pub to play darts and dominoes sometimes and he used to play card games with me, but even that was not a massively regular thing. We would go for 3 or 4 day trips a year to the coast, and always had a one week break in August in a neighbour's caravan at Aberystwyth that he rented out. But mostly, I just occupied myself, or played with friends.

SO the very idea that parents are shit now - compared to 30/40/50 years ago plus, because they 'stick their kids in front of a screen'' is just farcical. Even before I was born - pre mid 1960s - parents didn't do much with their kids, and it was not uncommon for them to just dump them on relatives, or boot them out all day as they were 'underfoot!'

Looking after children, especially little ones is hard sometimes, and it always has been, so people need to get this (and incorrect) shitty idea that mothers of young children these days are inferior to mothers of yesteryear (pre 1980s.)

Also, I didn't think it would be long before the 'I don't even have a TV' brigade came along. How tedious. 🙄

@Bananaandraisins Hope you get this sorted soon, but you do seem to be poo-pooing everything everyone is suggesting. What do you want people to say? No-one can help you, you can only help yourself. If you need to get your internet sorted so you can get some TV, then only you can sort it.

Hope it's sorted soon.