No TV school mornings

[woollencats]

DS1 (8) gets up at 6:20am 7 days a week no matter what time he goes to bed. He finds the remote and watches his favourite show. I get up at 7am. Then his brother (7) gets up at 7ish (they share a room) and he then wants to watch something as well whilst he comes round (not a morning person) so they carry on watching whilst I have my coffee and make breakfast.

I am going to hide the remote tonight as I think DS1 is waking to watch it. He struggles to play or read indoors for long. He loves active play in the garden and TV is the only time he sits down for more than 5 mins inside.

AIBU to ban it on school mornings and put the radio on? I have done it before but have slipped back into old habits!

We leave at 8:30am.

At primary age, in the 80s, I used to get up at 6am and watch The Flintstones in the lounge. It was my only 'me time'. Then they changed it to 5am and I had to start setting my alarm. Worked for me.

If we didn't watch TV in the mornings, I would never catch up on Bluey.

Me, ds and dp get up, washed, dressed, cafinated (obvs not ds) then sit for 15 mins and watch the 7.30 bluey episode before dp takes them off to cm and work whilst I fuck about with housework until I start my job (wfh)

I love that little 10 min chill time before everyone leaves but we don't have TV in bedrooms and my ds is too young to use thr remotes so maybe we will need to change once he is older. Right now (3) he isn't bothered by screens so we don't jave to limit them, he limits himself to about half hour max a day. And i have to force some of that time when I really him to be distracted for 5 mins or so.

I do the school run then I too fuck about with housework until I start my wfh job IAmAnIdiot123!

Maybe it's because I do the school run that I am adverse to any distractions 😂

If we didn't watch TV in the mornings, I would never catch up on Bluey.
😂😂

Given what you’ve observed about your own kids, I think it makes sense to try a total morning ban. At that age we had a no screens before you’re ready to go rule but they were never any trouble to get out of the door when it was time to go.

One alternative you could try is to let them watch one program if they are ready in time that will finish exactly as you need to leave. That would give them an incentive to get ready, give them some chill time, and set you up to leave on time. But there’s no harm insisting they find other ways to fill the time either.

And how much screen time the rest of the day? Of course he’s waking early to watch TV.
that’s a really bad habit, just tell the it’s a no from now on and see if he still wakes at 6 in the morning to read a book…

@Somanycats

Seriously why? What is wrong with you? How can you care about this crap? Why have you no confidence that most children grow up just fine with very few rules and very little intervention? I never wanted more for my boy than two A stars, 2 As and a science degree from a Russell group university. Which is exactly what he got. On his own, with bugger all non negotiables or rules from me. But hell if I'd made his childhood really miserable maybe he could have gone to Cambridge!

Same here! First and a Masters in Physics. RG Uni..... and he had a TV AND a PC in his room. Fuck me! Politeness and Kindness were my rules. That was it.

Thanks all. There's no right or wrong is there?! Totally depends on what works for the family.

They have TV after school and at weekends.

I was thinking about it as he was starting to wake earlier and earlier and he can get a bit obsessed with it. As they are very close in age but wake up at different times, it turns into arguments about who's had what TV time etc.

My DC used to have TV in the mornings before school but I changed it a couple of years ago to none because, like you, my DS seemed to be getting up early in order to watch TV! It works a lot better now.. And at the weekends I usually say no TV before 7 am..they are generally sleeping a bit later now.

We've always been strict on Tv time - and for us the less time works best.
They have so much screen access - esp. when older.
TV, - with kids programmes on all the time. Tablets. Smart phones. Screens in school for teaching, homework done on screens.

TThere are so many distractions. It affects how much time they spend outdoors, reading, learning, playing games, sports.

Turn it all off now for as long as you can now. You'll be battling enough when they're older

What a strange comment! Lies? How do you decide people are telling lies?
No TV before school here, ever.