TV at breakfast time, 8 and 4 year olds

[dernt]

I’m thinking it probably needs ditching?

I mean it is up to you. If the tv is causing issues just turn it off.

why do you do it, and why are you now questioning it?

surely you as the parent are capable of deciding this

I mean, we use the TV - they eat their brekkie dine and watch some TV before school. No issues

Have done it previously out of habit maybe, and maybe when they were smaller it just made everything easier.
I thinking it’s really not necessary anymore and they can just play!

We all get stuck in ruts and it’s good to talk

What do you mean they can just play ? What issues are you having with the television.

If it's not causing an issue I'm not sure why you would ditch it, just because you think they 'should' be playing. I'm assume they have plenty of other time to play and a wide variety of activities in their lives? If so, no I wouldn't choose this particular time to ditch it.

It's a bit hard to answer when you've given absolutely no context whatsoever.

They can play before school instead of having the tv on.

It’s probably not a good way to start the morning? My eldest is a bit of an airhead, maybe the distracting tv is partly to blame.

Mine are 8,6 and 4 and have about 20-30 minutes of the tv on in the background as they’re getting ready for school. I tried stopping it and letting them play instead and it was a disaster. At least with the tv on I can help get the younger ones dressed and contain them all in one room whilst I’m doing hair, putting shoes and coats on. If they’re playing they’re off in different rooms getting things and then they’re so busy playing they don’t want to leave for school. It’s different for each family though, with ours letting them go and play definitely made things worse.

Does it matter if they watch tv before school ?

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/safescreenscampaign_this-powerful-short-film-from-10-news-activity-7426698280194981889-S266

Fairly scary findings. I’m not quite sure if TV counts as interactive screen time though as there is no scrolling

We have no TV before school (or after apart from Fridays) - 100% easier to get the kids ready and out the door.....and they sleep in longer. DS8 would wake at like 530 to have breakfast and get ready so he could watch TV before school. Now he wakes up between 630 and 7am

Not enough context?

I used to find it fairly helpful to watch terrestrial TV with eldest DS because we could use it as an external cue for our routine e.g. when Peppa Pig finishes it's time to turn the TV off and get our shoes etc on. It's harder now most TV is on demand, my younger DC just want to watch it endlessly.

I do think the general hysteria about TV is somewhat missing the point though. It's not like e.g. alcohol and the drink drive limit, where it's always going to impair you somewhat but a small amount of impairment is OK.

I think the problem with TV/screens is that it's easy to fall into habits where it goes on automatically and/or it's on for too long because it's an easy way to entertain them and they aren't making a mess or needing help or fighting (well, unless it's over the remote) and when the screen stuff takes over or pushes out other things then you have issues because they're not getting to practice all the skills children naturally practice through play and they aren't experiencing being bored and using their own imaginations or communicating and negotiating with each other.

All these studies where they try to prove the harms of it seem to be looking for a specific magic number and I just don't think that is the right way to look at it. Look at balance and what they are getting out of it, including zoning out time because we all need that. But be honest with yourself if you're slipping into bad habits and try to avoid that.

We have tv before school but only once they are fully ready to go, including shoes on, coats ready, book bags sorted and next to them etc. Realistically this gives them 5-10 mins of tv each morning.
If they were to ever start whining about not wanting it turned off when it’s time to go, I’d stop allowing it. But we’ve never once had that be an issue.

What confuses me is how anyone has time for tv or playing before school, I had enough trouble fitting in breakfast!

Mine are similar age to yours. I tell them they can have TV in the morning once they have got dressed, washed and at least started their breakfast, usually leaves around 10 mins of TV before we leave the house, and many times they have forgotten about TV by then as they have got distracted by something else.

They wake at 7, we leave at 8.

We've stopped it. DD eats breakfast by herself usually whilst DH gets her uniform and everything she needs ready for school, and we were finding she would be sat in front of a bowl of cereal zoned out whilst DH was waiting for her to come upstairs to get dressed. There are no morning people in this house so in the morning we're tight on time and it's about getting ready and out the door quickly. I think if you have very early risers and have lots of spare time in the morning, there's nothing that wrong with a bit of TV before starting a busy day.

I let my daughter (4) watch tv once she has had breakfast and is dressed etc. Both children get up really early and it's a very long morning! DS goes to nursery at 7.30 then she's allowed the TV on until I take her to school at 8.20. I WFH so use this time to log and do emails etc.
She'll have extra toast etc while she watches.
Only ever cbeebies. She has no access to a phone or a tablet or anything so it's the only screen time she has apart from films at the weekend sometimes.

I have two DC of older primary age and only 1 TV in the living room. It was causing too many arguments.

I had to ditch it as I have one child who if I said could watch it would be up at 6am everyday so he could watch as much as possible and he needs more sleep so he would be grumpy later in the day. He now sleeps in more and goes straight to breakfast.

My other child naturally wakes about half an hour later than his brother (not a morning person like me!) and then he'd be arguing about having less TV time.

They'd then be in a zombie state afterwards and didn't want to get ready for school etc.

I do let them watch 10 mins of sports highlights on occasion if their team had been playing the night before but 9 times out of 10 its off.

Radio all the way.

Yeah I would ditch it. Assume it’s not the only screen time they get? We have kids same age as yours. They get an hour of telly before dinner every day but we never have it on in the morning. Once they are ready for school they play for a bit if there’s time.

If my oldest got dressed and ready and ate breakfast in time, she got to sit and watch Sailor Moon before leaving for the bus. Not ready, nope. It was really effective and established a habit from early on.