No TV before school?!

[Tireddadplus]

Hi! Just got a message from our DD’s (5yo) school that we should not let the kids watch any tv before school! Bad for their brains or something…

DD watches a bit of tv while myself or DW sort out lunches or whatever…just makes getting out the door easier!

Am i being unreasonable to ignore this advice?

We were told that our 6 year old was easily distracted at school. We decided to try cutting out pre-school TV (like you we used it a little to get ready in the mornings) in case it was having an impact. Within a couple of weeks we were told her attention span had increased. So yes, YABU to ignore their advice.

I'd perhaps try a few days without it to gauge for myself if it was having an effect. Otherwise I'd continue with our normal routine.

I don't believe that teachers can tell who has TV in the morning and who doesn't. We used to have 15 mins every day, we don't now, and there is no difference in behaviour.

We watched Milkshake on channel 5 back when my girl was little.
We used it as a timing guide and the presenters clock behind them was very handy.
All worked well until the schedule changed every so often 😂
(Once late to nursery.... teacher laughed...."Sorry we're late. Channel 5 changed Peppa's timeslot")
Schools can say what they want but they can't control your home life.
Edit : we were also late another day when my decided she HAD to line up all her My Little Ponies before school.

There are plenty of other things she can do while you get on that don't involve a screen.

Ds has a 30 to 45 minute commute to school in a warm taxi im sure there are other reasons why he is sleepy first thing that's not linked to television

I think it's fine if you are walking to school, as a walk is a great brain reset. I think if it's TV, car, school, I can see they would be zombiefied.

We are music/radio/yoto only in the mornings before school.

Mostly because if dc2 is watching tv, she goes into slow motion but music speeds her up.

We have no tv before school, it’s way too distracting for them when they are trying to get ready!

Sounds like denial tbh. You’ve had to ban things and can’t control the kids phone time without setting limits? Yet they’re young enough to be watching CBeebies?

Wow

She said CBBC.
That's the channel for older children and tweens.

Definitely no tv in the mornings here. Dc are older now but if I’d had tv on, I don’t think I could have got them away from it without a battle.
Books, drawing or timestables songs if they had time (which was very rare)

Yup, breakfast, dressed, teeth, shoes on, bag packed, if there's time tv for 5mins.
Good incentive to get sorted in time

We have music on Alexa before school, change the playlist depending on everyone’s mood that day

My kids get up at 5:30/6 (year 3 & 6) and we’re totally fine with that. Our mornings work well. They screen - TV and switch -until 7:30 and then play until 8:30 when we leave for school.
All pretty harmonious on the whole, this morning they played Uno and did loom bands and made paper snowflakes and those like paper people chain concertina things.
Also thriving at school - if it ain’t broke don’t fix it OP!

Does nobody have the radio on in the mornings any more?

there was no tv before school on my house either.

Why don’t you get dd to brush teeth, put on shoes and play with a toy instead? Our tvs aren’t turned on until after dinner.

When I was struggling with a baby and two small kids I used to “reward” them with some telly if they were ready by 8am (we leave the house at 8.30) . It just focused their mind on getting ready and left me time to get myself and baby ready. We walk to school so they get time to blow off the cobwebs.

Now they are older we have it off and we don’t turn on any screens until later in the evening.

I think you need to weigh up how much it works for you.

Id guess it depends on the child but they can't say "Jimmy, you are a git when you watch TV in the morning".
We have cbeebies on while we wake up properly then we have breakfast at the table, off to get ready then back down with it on. The also play while it's on. I reckon we have the TV on way too much but I don't think it affects her negatively. She reads, plays, listens to music, we chat about it day.

We used to have R4 on in the mornings. World's too scary for that now.

It's not really the school's place to try and say what you can and can't do in your own home. It might be causing an issue in school so generic questions or advice might be acceptable. You still do what suits you and your family though.

That said, we never had the TV on in the mornings when my three were growing up. Didn't see the need and everyone got out of the door faster without.

I couldn’t get worked up about this. You parent how it works for you. My dc can watch tv if they want. One of them never does. One of them does some days, but not always. The one that watches tv is definitely the one that doesn’t struggle with paying attention or settling into school and getting on with work.

I cannot imagine the school has any accurate way to gauge who is watching tv or not (I bet the so called ‘good’ kids from the ‘naice’ families simply say no if asked if they perceive it’s not socially acceptable). I also imagine, based on what I’ve seen at our school, that teachers and school staff have bigger problems to deal with that if Susie watched tv that morning. There are kids wetting themselves and some trying to climb the school gates to get out and some sending harassing racist group chat messages. That’s not because anyone watched 15 minutes of Bluey in the morning. 😂

We have a rule which is when DD (5) is dressed, breakfasted and completely ready for school then she can watch CBeebies / CBBC for 15 mins or so before we leave. Nothing streamed allowed, just whatever is on live TV. Her older brother goes on Mathletics / TTRS once he’s ready and he’s done the dishwasher.

I can understand the school’s rationale but it works fine for us. It helps to keep things calm in the morning when we’re trying to get ready to get out of the door for work.

We were very strict about this until the DC were a bit older.

I think there's a difference between watching 10 mins of a gentle film vs an hour of youtube

DS will watch a bit of tv while he eats breakfast. I guess it feels normal because I have fond memories of watching cartoons as a kid before school. He has no siblings and DH and I are getting ready for work ourselves, and our mornings run very smoothly.

He does well at school, but I would give no-screens a go before school if they suggested it. In fact DS would probably accept it better if I said it came from school rather than just me! DH and I have the radio on in the kitchen so I’d probably suggest DS listens to an audiobook or something.

We are a "a TV on as background noise" family, and early risers so plenty of time for telly and 2 or 3 breakfasts. As the TV is on a lot they don't complain when it goes off. It's how I grew up too, still did well at school.
We do have an almost 20 min walk to school which I'm sure helps prepare their brains.