To wonder how kids had downtime before TV

[someladdersandsnakes]

I saw a post earlier on a Facebook group from someone who had managed to keep their 3 year old screen free, until out of desperation recently she started giving her one cartoon a day so she could put the younger child down for a nap. And she feels she's destroyed her kid's creativity. And most people were saying it's admirable you've managed this long but go easy on yourself because screen time is incredibly helpful and gives your child a chance to wind down too.

Now I see a moderate amount of screen time as pretty much essential to my own parenting. It's not just that it gives me time to get things done without being interrupted. There are also times particularly after a long day at nursery when my DD seems too tired to engage with play, and can't maintain interest in anything and just needs TV/tablet to zone out a bit. And this seems pretty normal/common to me.

So I'm just wondering, before TV was invented (and/or if you're genuinely a screen free parent but I've never met one of those) what did young kids do when they were too frazzled to play? Were they more creative than modern kids and just played nicely anyway? Or did they sit there whinging? What if they were ill? Did they just lie in bed staring into space? I'm a 90s kid and always had TV so I have no idea and cannot imagine this world 😂

I did wonder how this poster managed to watch tv in the mornings too as I was born end of 60's and there was no morning tv in UK then only radio .

drawing, playing with toys.

pre the age of 5 we didnt have a tv.
and again, only a small amount of tv, definitely no morning tv, not allowed.

I was quite feral and played outside for hours on end with neighbours from age 4. The older we got the further away we explored. It was fun I had an idyllic childhood from that point of view

I also loved reading so it was quite the task for my friends to drag me outside sometimes

Oh I would also say we only really became bored if it was raining , then we would watch the rain running down the windows , and wait for tomorrow so we could make mud pies . We were dirty a lot .

My grandparents had other adults to take care of the children while they got on with work. In one case, it was an older woman living in the home, and in the other it was nursery maids.

I was born in the 60s; we didn't get a TV until I was about 6. I spent a lot of time up to then (and afterwards) outdoors doing stuff I have no recollection of. Probably digging holes in the garden or some such worthwhile pursuit. I think I also did a lot of drawing/ scribbling.

We were all fed, bathed, and ready for bed by 6pm. That will give you an idea of how much my mother enjoyed the business of keeping three small children occupied all day every day. I know for sure there was a lot of whinging and not every day was filled with delightful arts and crafts and jolly puddle jumping and reading sessions, because my mother said she was thrilled to be able to just turn on the TV and get a bit of peace in the afternoon.

My kids grew up before iPads and tablets. They watched a lot of TV. We were lucky to have an excellent PBS station - no nickelodeon or other poor quality cable fare.

I don't think you did. Not if you grew up in the UK unless you were watching the Open University.

Breakfast TV started in the 1980s.

OP

My parents were born late 30's early 40's so a good bit of their childhood was about sheltering from bombs.

Children would do home work, play out get up to mischief. Children were allowed out uite young.

Even in the 70s it wasn't unusual for 10 year olds (usually girls) to knock on a door and ask to 'take the baby out' and you would be handed a pram with a baby in to wheel around the streets.

One of my uncles in the 1950s had a go cart, he used to rent it out to other kids while he was at school.

Also lots of domestic tasks took longer and often children were involved with washing up, peeling potatoes, chopping veg.

DD is 4.5, we didn’t do any screen time until 3 and then only did Daniel Tiger on long road trips (so maybe once a month?), now she probably gets 1-2 hours every other weekend and most of that is on long car trips. We do pod casts, she plays kinetic sand a lot, we read to her a lot and did A LOT before we did screens (like maybe 1-1.5 hours a day). I don’t actually find it super hard to get things done, this evening for example, she drew outside with chalk for half an hour while I cooked dinner, we ate together and then she put all her stuffed animals to bed with pretend baths while I cleaned up for 30 mins after. She often wants to help so I’ll give her parsley to strip or something (ie, takes a long time and isn’t that important for my cooking).

she does sleep a lot - friend pointed out their DC slept 3 hours less a day and over the course of the week, that’s a lot of extra parenting! If she was up at 5:30 every day we might have a lot more screens!

She also had a couple minor meltdowns etc so it’s not like she’s blissful all the time. But definitely possible to skip screens.

Exactly this. Bring it back.

It's bizarre that people seem to have read my first post on this thread, one challenging it and yet missed the multiple follow up posts where I confirmed that no, I did not grow up in the U.K.

https://poets.org/poem/land-counterpane

This poem sprang to mind straight away , I used to love it as a child. I hope to come across my old poetry book in my loft one day ! I remember in the 70’s in the UK there was at least one children’s programme at lunchtime .Bod, Rupert and Mary ,Mungo and Midge spring to mind. I use to cry when Rupert ended.

How old is your dad?

I'm pretty sure they raised the school leaving age to 14 in 1918, and it was 11 from 1893. (Though I think this is England again, not sure about Scotland/NI etc.)

I grew up not watching TV during the day and whilst there was cbebiea I think when my children were young we never had TV on as I brought them up in the same way that I was. They played with toys, played outside, helped me aroind the house, went out and about, just everyday things

I don't really know what you mean by frazzled and downtme

My children are older now and do watch netflix etc, there are no negatives to them not watching stuff as small children whereas I suspect there are to screens for pre schoolers

I used to enjoy colouring, painting, drawing, reading, playing with dolls or Lego. I collected stamps, made stuff out of material scraps, cut out pictures from an old clothes catalogue to make a wardrobe of clothes 😂 played out with friends etc. My mother monopolised the TV so I didn’t watch a lot of it and she didn’t want me making noise or mess.

I didn't have a tv when my children were young. If they were tired or needed down time, they played with imaginative toys (dolls house, train track), read, coloured, drew, lazed in the garden.

I am not against screens for kids. There are some fantastic programmes and apps. But I do think they can be overused. I don't like to see children with iPads in pushchairs or in restaurants when they should be learning and interacting.

This week the worst I've seen is a child walking around a supermarket with a blaring iPad, and a mum handing an iPad to a child the very second he finished his food in a family restaurant. Later, they wanted to leave but he wouldn't let them until the programme finished. I teach and do think it contributes to the way some children really struggle to entertain themselves and find even seconds of 'boredom' quite difficult to cope with.

I'm 67 , there was no TV before tea time. Kids programmes were on for a very short while until the news started and that was all we got. We played in the kitchen in bad weather, if fine we went out to the backyard and played. When we got older we played in the surrounding fields. We went fishing in the stream, rode bikes walked around. I'm from a rural area so being outside was just what we did. We read, played card/board games etc. Basically we amused ourselves. I think it was perceived that a bit of boredom made us more self-reliant.

I remember, I had Sindy dolls and a toy horse and I used to cut up material and make them clothes and blankets. I had a spirograph and stencils and I made lots of drawings and patterns. I read a lot and wrote my own story comic books. My grandad turned up every week with 'Mandy' magazine, which was exciting. We had a garden so I made assault courses and dug about and we had a rabbit which I messed about with and a swing. I rearranged the horse posters on my wall and made things out of cereal boxes. We had a book called 'making science fun' so I found stuff round the house for little experiments. I had a nice time, as I recall.

My niece is nursery age. When she comes home, she potters around outside (in the backyard, not roaming around the neighbourhood like kids used to), has a swing (under supervision), plays with dolls, "reads" (picture books, flip books or books with words but she flicks through them for ages)...

Before TV children didn’t have down time.
The boys went down t’pit or up chimneys.
The girls worked in t’mill or went into domestic service.
HTH.
😁😁

In terms of toddlers and smaller ones, who wouldn’t be reading, playing out etc while their mother did jobs, it was much more acceptable to put them in a playpen and let them cry/moan for you while you cracked on with it. These days you would be judged for that.

I had to put up with the Sullivans if I was off school poorly

I was little in the 80's so there was tv but it wasn't constant kids tv like now. My Mum used to just put me in the garden to play. I would dig, ride my trike, play with dolls, search for worms, make perfume etc. As I got older I would play with the kids next door in the street.

I grew up in Sweden and we had 2 TV channels. There wasn’t anything airing during the days at all, the mornings only had news from what I remember. There was one kids show on at 6.15-6.45pm during the week and then one hour of cartoons on Sunday mornings. That was the screen time I had. 3.5h/week total.
what I remember doing if I needed downtime was listening to stories on cassette tapes in my room, or on LPs in the sitting room. Sometimes just sitting there listening, sometimes whilst pottering with other things.

@Snoken your post has reminded me that I used to listen to Storyteller tapes and I had a record player.

Would you mind providing some evidence for this? Those are quite some claims that you’re making.