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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ban telly in the mornings?

102 replies

BalloonSlayer · 23/09/2009 07:53

Have finally had it after 5 years of reminding, cajoling, nagging, shouting, and sometimes screaming like a banshee to get DCs ready for school.

Since the beginning of term we have had telly off at 8am, still has not worked.

This week I have flipped and said it's not going on at all.

DD ok about it. DS2 to small to care. DS1 is a study of martyred injury and Kevin-like injustice. Needless to say it is DS1 who is the one who makes us all late for school.

DH thinks I am being OTT at banning TV entirely. He thinks its unfair as DS1 often gets up very early. I think one of the reason DS1 does get up so early is because he wants to watch the telly - then he is tired and I get attitude all day.

Opinions please.

OP posts:
MoChan · 23/09/2009 09:01

I banned TV before school, and this is for my step children, not my own daughter (who is 2, and only watches it for short periods). Not only would they never be ready to go in time, they were also rude and obstructive when asked to get ready in time because they were so focussed on the crap they were watching on TV (a great deal of which I don't approve of in any case...).

Plus, it meant that my two year old was sitting staring at the crap as well.

Since I said it isn't to go on, the morning atmosphere has been nicer. It's still chaotic, and still a mad rush around 7.51am, however...

spinspinsugar · 23/09/2009 09:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hullygully · 23/09/2009 09:03

Telly in the morning?

Good lord.

Stayingsunnygirl · 23/09/2009 09:16

If my boys complain about not being allowed tv in the mornings, I remind them that when I was a child, my mum didn't let me have the tv on until 4pm, and even then I wasn't allowed to watch commercial tv (the work of the devil, apparently). Nor was I ever allowed to watch weekend morning tv. And I survived relatively unscathed, I think!

Romanarama · 23/09/2009 09:26

I am truly amazed that anyone lets their kids watch TV in the morning before school.

nymphadora · 23/09/2009 09:49

Since we moved we haven't a tv in the 'living room' so the kids don't bother any more. Now they are ready to go abou 7:45 (we leave at 8:40!)

Morloth · 23/09/2009 09:57

No screens at all in the mornings here. We all tend to roll out of bed at 7:00am and all leave at 8:30am.

The only issue with this is the occasional bathroom congestion .

Madsometimes · 23/09/2009 09:59

I banned TV in the mornings a few years ago. I just could not get my children to move when the TV was on, because they were so engrossed in what they were watching.

YANBU.

However, I do still scream, shout and nag to get them ready for school. dd1 in particular is not a morning child.

mrsruffallo · 23/09/2009 10:03

Why would anyone want their kids to watch TV in the mornings?
I just don't get it.

hullygully · 23/09/2009 10:04

I think absolute silence is essential in the morning. Everyone here reads over breakfast.

hannahsaunt · 23/09/2009 10:08

Stayingsunnygirl - did my mum secretly come and parent you too?? Bet you weren't allowed Grange Hill either

overmydeadbody · 23/09/2009 10:08

YANBU

I fail to understand why anyone should need to watch tv in the morning.

Stayingsunnygirl · 23/09/2009 10:32

We were allowed Grange Hill, hannahsaunt - but under sufferance, I think.

If I really want to horrify my children, I tell them how, when I was growing up, there were only 3 tv channels, and only about an hour and a half of programmes for children on each one - at the same time, so it didn't add up to three hours of childrens tv, either. And they had to cater for all ages in that time, so you probably only got a couple of programmes aimed at your age group.

Oh, and there weren't video recorders either, so if a programme clashed with another one, that was it, you missed it. And we had a black and white telly too.

Just the thought of such deprivation and suffering horrifies my boys!!

Flibbertyjibbet · 23/09/2009 10:37

Its never occurred to me to have the telly on in the mornings. Not when I lived on my own, or with dp, and certainly not with 2 children to get out to school and nursery.

I do all the shouting, cajoling, sometimes screaming up the stairs ( well its a 3 storey house) and we still end up feeling like its all on the last minute.

To add tv to that mix in the mornings...

redskyatnight · 23/09/2009 10:42

Of course YANBU to ban telly if that is works for you.

My 2 are allowed to watch TV only when they are completely ready to go. It actually works as a great incentive (I know this is not the case for others). While they are watching TV (for all of about 20 minutes and they tend not to watch after school) I can get tea ready, make beds, run the hoover round, hang out washing etc. Just what suits us. i'm surprised that others are surprised that some people do have tv on in the morning.

ReneRusso · 23/09/2009 11:00

Agree redskyatnight. If my DCs are dressed and ready for school before 7:30 then they are allowed to watch telly or play on the computer. This in itself is quite rare, amd even so would only give them about 10 minutes. Then telly off and breakfast at 7:30. Its a little incentive for them to get out of bed and get dressed without any nagging.

hullygully · 23/09/2009 11:09

SSG, mine asked me the other day if we had cars when I was a child...

scampadoodle · 23/09/2009 11:23

My two are allowed tv in the mornings but don't always switch it on. The mornings they don't watch are still as hellish re them getting ready as those when they do, as they get engrossed in something else like lego or Gogos.

DS1 is also an early riser but tbh I'm thinking of hiding the tv remotes so that he's forced to read.

I don't watch tv in the mornings but my mother (71) is addicted to it so it's not a generational thing...

Original poster
BalloonSlayer · 24/09/2009 08:09

Update, for anyone interested...

DS1 now dressed in uniform, bedroom tidy, breakfast eaten, school bag together, shoes on and permission has now been granted for TV to go on.

It's 08:08.

< goes for little lie-down >

OP posts:
GibbonInARibbon · 24/09/2009 08:18
Grin
Stayingsunnygirl · 24/09/2009 09:45

I still have those smellingsalts handy, if you need them, BalloonSlayer!

independiente · 24/09/2009 10:00

Why does the TV have to be switched on in the morning? Sounds like an odd way to start the school day IMO. Maybe, a treat reserved for the weekends instead?

claw3 · 24/09/2009 10:12

Glad it has worked for you.

In this house TV doesnt go on until everyone is ready and my eldest is almost 16!

Toffeepopple · 24/09/2009 12:38

YANBU

I hate TV in the morning for myself, so definitely don't want to start my kids on it.

Original poster
BalloonSlayer · 24/09/2009 13:23

For those who have wondered, I don't know how it came to pass that we had the telly on in the mornings.

It must have started when DC1 would get one of us up at sparrow's fart and we'd put the telly on to amuse him while we drank tea and tried not to feel to sorry for ourselves.

Then it's: "Thomas is on at 7, he loves that," which with no school to go to is all fine and dandy.

Which over time mutates into: "I am ASKING you what you want for breakfast, you could at least take your eye off pigging Spongebob for a second."

Before DCs I would have said there's no way my children will be watching the telly in the morning.

We never did. We had the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and the newspaper and thought ourselves loooooky

OP posts: