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?

There have been many studies done on it that show it overstimulates the brain and discourages children from actively engaging in thinking. Other activities become not as interesting because they aren't as visually stimulating so it makes them seem boring in comparison and negatively affects the thinking process. The brain does not calm down that quickly and hours later the effects are still there. It does the same thing for adults as well.

You may not see a problem but you are not there educating your child all day and don't see the issues first hand. Why make their jobs harder and your child's learning experience more difficult? It is absolutely true you can tell which kids were watching TV or on iPads first thing in the morning. It is overstimulation. Maybe try having them read a book instead or audiobook story.

We've always done TV on the mornings. Both kids are early risers so time to kill. We didn't let them until they were ready for school though (apart from shoes on), so they had to have had breakfast, dressed, clean teeth etc first. It helped stop them procrastinating with that stuff, and gave us time to do our own prep for the day. Went they were little and watching cbeebies live they even learn which programmes finishing was the signal to go to the toilet and put their shoes and coat on.

Neither have ever had any issues with learning or behaviour in school, and I've never noticed any behaviour changes as a result of TV either. I don't think it is schools business unless it is causing an issue for your particular child in school, and I'm not sure why some posters are being quite so judgy.

I wouldn't let them game before school though as I think that's much more addictive so could affect behaviour more.

The amount of kids that I used to see being driven to school with off-the-chart loud music was ridiculous.
I wonder if emails ever get issued to parents about that?

We don’t have screens on before school because it slows us down. It’s not a bad policy, at school age children can play independently while you get things done.

My daughter rarely watches TV and never before school, although she does occasionally watch her iPad while she’s getting ready. She’s nearly 11 though. If I feel it’s slowing her down it goes off because we have limited time. Like others have said, something calm and sedate is probably fine but something with a lot of action, noise, lights, fighting, shouting etc probably not so much..

Ironically, TV in our house makes our eldest more hyper and the behaviour gets worse so I limit it. Our youngest doesn't care about TV too much anyway.
No TV in the mornings ever, unless someone is ill. We get up, have breakfast around the table and get ready to leave.

Because they wake up naturally between 6-630 and we leave at 8.20, except once a week when we do breakfast club. I never wake them for school.

Briefly it was actually part of DD1’s school routine - if you are totally ready, you can watch Mickey Mouse Club House before school. I forget when it started but it finished at the perfect time to leave the house. Then the buggers changed the schedule and that was it for us and pre-school TV…

I'm amazed anyone has the time. I've only got one (7 year old) who is a complete bumbler so it's like a military operation to keep her moving.

If I let her watch TV we'd never get there on time (and we only live 2 minutes down the road!). On the rare occasions we have time she might sit and read a book for 5 minutes but definitely no TV.

No knowledge is wasted.

We have the radio on in the morning, our TV doesn’t go on until after dinner in the evening. If there’s a good song there’s a dance around the kitchen, but in all honesty the TV is far too big a distraction when there’s a time constraint so something had to give. We don’t miss it at all!

My kids woke at 6 am every day. We didn't have to be at school til 8.55 am. In the 10 years I have been taking kids, we have never been late. But they did get to watch TV, a bit before breakfast / getting dressed and a bit afterwards before they left if there was time. They knew that any fussing and it would go off and wouldn't be allowed on again that day. We walked 20 mins to school, presumably enough time for any overstimulation to wear off. Sometimes they wouldn't bother and would play - actually this would be harder to get them to stop than TV which they knew they could always catch up on.

Apart from safeguarding issues, I think schools should leave parents to get on with parenting and parents should leave schools to get on with teaching.

My kids listen to music in the morning. Much better than overstimulating their brains and sending them into school.

Never had tv before school even with all six of them

I mean the less screen time, the better, right? Everyone knows that. If you don't put the TV on, they will find a way to occupy themselves - might be a few uncomfortable days but then it becomes the norm.

The number of people saying kids watch while they eat breakfast. What? They don't need a screen whilst they eat! Ever.

My daughter (10) often watches TV for 20-30 minutes in the morning before school once she's ready and we've had absolutely no complaints about her focus or her behaviour at any point in her life, just the opposite. She does often have a fairly decent gap between turning off the TV and starting school though ie a 20-25 minute walk to school and then 10-15 mins in the playground. So a good hour really before she's expected to start any school work.

She doesn't have her tablet before school in the morning and the reason for that is that I do actually think that affects her. I think it sets her up badly. There's something about content on iPads etc that is so frenetic and over stimulating. There are no exceptions to this rule for her.

What I do find weird is parents thinking everyone else should do what they do. This is what I do with my daughter. I wouldn't dream of telling anyone they should also do this as if I'm some guru.

It was the same in our house when the children were young.

Out of pure curiosity, can I ask why that is?

Obviously you can do whatever you want to do in your own home. It’s just advice they are giving to help your kids get more out of school.
Our school suggests that parents avoid using screens at all Monday to Friday as they would like to use the WHO suggested screen time for a child for educational use and if they watched any more at home they would be over the recommended limit. Didn’t affect us at the time as the children didn’t have screens or TV at all at that age, but we have stuck to it as they’ve got older and have seen the benefits.

Wow! TV before school. Is this a thing now? I’m obviously very old.

How naive of you. It’s probably why they made this suggestion- they have to deal with the kids because parents aren’t doing parenting!

We don't have time for TV in the mornings so this is moot. But even if we did, we wouldn't. They can do something lowkey in the morning- read a book, do some stickers, play for a bit. Anything.

I think the problem is not 'TV in the morning' but that there is genuinely a generation of children who know of no other forms of entertainment that is not screen based. And therefore cannot wait in a line, sit for 10 mins in the car, hang around waiting for their parents to heat something up for dinner, walk around a grocery store or take a short bus ride/public transport without needing a screen to distract them. And the usual response to people pointing this out is: would you rather they were kicking or screaming?

As if there are two modes for children: stare at a screen or behave badly, and nothing in between...

You might be one of few on this thread but in general TV is a normal morning staple for lots of people. I'm not a big TV watcher but I do remember remember watching it before school when I was younger. Stuff like The Big Breakfast.

Trouble is, poor parenting impacts the teachers’ ability to get on with teaching.

That’s why they make recommendations about what happens at home - so that actually educating the children becomes the focus at school, rather than handling behavioural issues such as not concentrating in class because they’ve been overstimulated by screens before school.