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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pleased that my DDs don't know the words to the Bob the Builder song?

66 replies

Riponite · 09/05/2010 21:34

Am I being mean at nearly 3 and 5 that they haven't seen any of the TV programmes their friends watch? I love not having a telly and am secretly very smug about it too, but is there an age where they will start feeling left out and ought to know who Peppa Pig is?

OP posts:
MaisietheMorningsideCat · 09/05/2010 22:03

Ah, but you're assuming that all TV = bad, hence your smugness. Not true.

Original poster
Riponite · 09/05/2010 22:08

Well, not all TV is bad, though I think some is, and some is v good and educational and useful when the children get much older, but it just doesn't seem like we need it right now, and that it would be something that we were always being badgered about. I'd rather be badgered to read a book, I don't want to introdue something that will make them want licenced things, and more telly.

OP posts:
MaisietheMorningsideCat · 09/05/2010 22:12

Fair enough - but that's not a reason to feel smug, is it? There are crap books and fantastic books, all making money for the authors, book shops, library suppliers and publishers, and many which generate spin-off merchandising. No-one would stop reading all books on that basis, and feel smug, would they?

Imarriedafrog · 09/05/2010 22:12

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Imarriedafrog · 09/05/2010 22:13

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MaisietheMorningsideCat · 09/05/2010 22:16

Noooo...not The Rainbow Fairies! DD's bookshelves are groaning under the weight of the tosh that are TRF...

Original poster
Riponite · 09/05/2010 22:17

Well, I'm basing my entire parenting experience on friends with children up to my kids' ages (up to about 6) and my own childhood. I know practically zilch about eight year olds etc. When my elder DD was about 18 months, and her friends were too, I was a bit horrified when friends claimed their daughters were 'obsessed' with Fifi or Noddy and demanding anything with their pictures on, and I kind of made a decision that I didn't want my kids to do that. It's a pretty narrow view, I know, and the same friends children have grown up into perfectly nice children.

OP posts:
PortBlackandRat · 09/05/2010 22:19

Riponite - just don't become the mum in the preschool queue who mentions she doesn't have a tv within three sentences of first meeting you. We all have one of those....

whatthe · 09/05/2010 22:19

My ds loves the discovery channel, "How it's Made", "Walking with Dinosaurs", nature programs, snake programs, diving shipwreck programs, "extreme trains" any docus about trains and machines actually.

I have a BSc in Business, and my husband in IT so we don't always have the expertise to explain things in the detail he likes, I find these progs invaluable, it puts things into moving living practise more than his books can sometimes do. I'll also tape the BBC bitesize key stage programs and he'll watch enraptured about planets solar systems electricity etc.

He's 4 btw.

Now that's SMUG!

Only joking, it's just the way he's made...

MaisietheMorningsideCat · 09/05/2010 22:20

Have your kids ever been to the cinema?

Original poster
Riponite · 09/05/2010 22:20

The Disney-in-a-book spin-offs fall down the back of the bookcase. A lot of their books were mine, the rest get bought in charity shops by me or my mother - books are easier to vet, unless you watch telly with them how do you know what they are watching? If you have satellite there are hundreds of channels.

(of course, once they stop listening to Mummy, there are much worse things on the internet, and I have to work on that in advance, and soon)

OP posts:
Baileysismyfriend · 09/05/2010 22:22

What would worry me is that if your dd was glued to the TV in hospital as she hadnt seen it before then it sounds like she could end up more obsessed when older than someone that had access to it all the time.

Just a thought?

My DD has never been completely zoned into the TV and she's 11.

Original poster
Riponite · 09/05/2010 22:23

Discovery Channel does sound fun but I think you have to buy a package... They've never been to the cinema, two year old much too young and five year old would hate how loud it is.

I never mention lack of telly, I am currently on the AIBU thread and allowed! I'm enjoying the discussion, this is the point, isn't it? I would never start this up in a school queue?

OP posts:
Joolyjoolyjoo · 09/05/2010 22:25

Well, my kids do watch and enjoy some TV, but I guess they could live without it

My DH, on the other hand, would be distraught, possibly to the point of needing medication. I just couldn't do that to him

paisleyleaf · 09/05/2010 22:27

Maisie's book analogy is good. There's some rubbish and some good. "No-one would stop reading all books on that basis, and feel smug".
My 5 year old loved the Wonders of the Solar System.

parakeet · 09/05/2010 22:29

To answer some of your questions Riponite, it is very easy to know what they are watching without watching it yourself. I, for example, only put CBeebies on, and they don't know how to change channels yet. You know it's all safe and age-appropriate, and doesn't advertise things.

They never pester me for the TV because they know it only ever goes on between 6.00pm and 7.00pm. I think it's a nice way for them to relax at the end of the day - just like a lot of grown-ups do really.

And what "authority" ever claimed that it is somehow "good for you" to never watch TV? And what was their evidence?

(I can't stand smug people.)

Original poster
Riponite · 09/05/2010 22:29

I need to go to bed, DH back home from six weeks away tomorrow am, thank you for the fight! Particularly enjoyed the MNer that just said Smug off and went away again.

Maybe I'll start introducing some TV some time, maybe in the holidays when there's more time.

OP posts:
MollieO · 09/05/2010 22:30

We have very small tv (not telly!) screen is smaller than my laptop computer screen. I am in charge of it and I make sure it doesn't make me stay up late (weird reason not to have a tv imo!).

junglist1 · 10/05/2010 07:37

That's just over the top. Do they eat a macrobiotic diet as well?

brightongirldownunder · 10/05/2010 07:48

Anyone fancy joining my bad mother's club?!!
Recently, to avoid major tantrums in the car, I started "name that TV theme" with DD. She got 10/10 the other day - and that included the tune to Father Ted .
She is only just 3.

You are not smug, though. Just obviously incredibly brilliant at entertaining you DD's all day... . Meh....

My DD does prefer salad to chocolate though...

Chandon · 10/05/2010 07:53

you´re not secretly smug, you´re openly smug!

You are a one-upmanship, look-what-a-brilliant-mother I am kind of mum.

If that´s who you like to be, enjoy it.

brightongirldownunder · 10/05/2010 08:01

I personally think the telly is a bloody brilliant invention.

Morloth · 10/05/2010 08:26

When we sing Bob the Builder we sing:

"Can we fix it? No its STUFFED!"

Or if DS isn't around and for some reason I feel the need it is "NO, it's FUCKED!"

I'll get my coat...

ABatInBunkFive · 10/05/2010 08:41

Morloth, was similar round here, they've grown out of it now.

OP YABU Surely singing Bob the builder is a life skill??

thesecondcoming · 10/05/2010 09:01

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