Does anyone have a pre-schooler and not allow any TV at all?

[AppleAndBlackberry]

I'm just on my second day of trying this out as my 3 year old DD has been waking in the night a lot and having nightmares and I'm just at the point where I'll give anything a try! I also have a 16 month old and they were watching 1-2 hours a day before that, less at the weekends. Has anyone done this, and if so have you seen any benefits?

Downside so far is that they have been overtired today so were mainly screaming while I made dinner but on the other hand they have had more playing time and I've read to them more than we do on a normal day. Hard work though!

I really recommend the book Set Free Childhood. It will strengthen your resolve to limit screen-based entertainment, which I believe is a very good principle. I have a 15 month old and another one turning 4 next week. The older one I limit to about an hour a day, although I don't know what happens when she's at her dad's at weekends. The younger one is not interested yet in telly, but I think a little bit is important for the PARENTS' sanity most days at this age. We actually don't have a physical telly and in the olden days that would have been it but nowadays of course you just need the internet. And I do love the internet so I'm not a good model, being screen addicted myself, although I only watch an hour or so of tv programmes a week; the kids are not going to differentiate though when they see me.
One of the most important points I took from the book was counting how many hours screen time the kids were having as a percentage of their waking hours that day, and that felt scarier; eg, DD is awake for 12 hours and if she spends 2 and a half hours watching a screen, that's more than 20% of her waking hours, time she NEEDS for social role play, conversation, outdoor play, and all the other things she would normally do.
Time spent in front of the screen, including computer games, is a breather for the parents, but a proper waste for the kids, who can't get this time (development time) back.

My 2yr old (nearly 3) had a few nightmares a few months ago so I've cut down to Cbeebies only. May have been a coincidence but he's been fine since. I try and have a couple of days a week t.v free but have 3 under 5's so really need a bit of time where they sit quietly so I can hear myself think .
They do love music so I put a pre school CD on and they'll sit and listen for a while.

not telly free by any means, but try to limit it quite severely; not least because dd (3.6) behaves a lot better when she doesn't watch it too much. But it does sometimes mean having to do really boring stuff play with her myself...but we also have 7 month old and sometimes it's the only way...the 3 yo tends to ask to watch it when she is bored/wants to get out of doing something. if there's someone to play with or something to do, she rarely asks. She only ever watches cbeebies or dvds

We have actually had a couple of good nights since stopping the TV. I think you're right caroline that 2 hours out of 12 is quite a lot of their day, I will definitely try to limit it a lot more than I was even if we don't give it up altogether.

Like the music idea naturalbaby.

I agree it's a different thing when you have a baby as well rhetorician, I think I needed it a lot more a year ago but my youngest is well out of the baby stage now so I don't think I have that excuse any more.

we're not 'none' but we limit our 2yr8m old to about an hour a day, sometimes there is none if we have enough activities or a day out, other days he will have cbeebies on for around an hour and I try and make it the 'active' programming that he likes - something special where he will learn new words, show me show me where he will copy words and dances etc or waybaloo where he does the yoga moves (really!) I usually use it if I am alone with him and need 30mins to get dressed/wash up/make a list/make his dinner/make an inportant phonecall etc etc , he's always liked Night Garden but lately I have found that if he doesnt have that just before bed he is alot calmer and goes to sleep easier!! I don't tend to have the TV on in the background, its too distracting/hypnotising.

I have ds1 age 6 and dd2 age 3.5. we have no TV, so it's iplayer only. We had no screen time for dc until 3, now occasional beebies at weekends (maybe 30mins a fortnight). So it's not part of a normal routine, which I think means it's not a "default" for the dc. Ds1 will read quietly if he needs downtime and I sometimes put a story cd on for dd2. When dd2 was a baby, I spent a lot of time reading over her head to ds1 while breastfeeding!

We don't have tv, but do allow some DVDs - none during the week and an hour or so on each weekend day. DD is 3.3 and DS is 20m.

Great to hear some other people's responses. We have had a lot less disturbed nights since stopping the TV - just had 2 full nights sleep in a row! I always intended to limit it to no more than an hour but I think we had a difficult period with the two of them a few months ago and I just forgot about doing it.

I stress about this a LOT. DS (2yo) probably watches 45 mins a day on average. I feel guilty about it, but DH argues that as he does a lot of activities (something out of the house both morning and afternoon- play school, mini-soccer, play date, swimming, park etc) it's not going to kill him.

Having done some reading, it seems that the main issue with TV is that when they're watching TV they're not doing something more interactive/ imaginative, (playing, talking, reading) rather than that the TV is harmful in itself so I think you have to look at their overall schedule.

I never just "have the TV on" in the background so we only switch on to watch specific things, and increasingly its downloads on my laptop.

No TV here either but I do get pestered by my older one (just turned 5) to let her watch iplayer, meaning that the younger one (2 1/2) watches as well. This is usually about half an hour after school. Having said that, we have just had a bad weekend with torrential rain and four people stuck in a house with heavy colds. Lets just say I exceeded my normal limit of what I consider permissible screen time.....

Not none as they watch an hour sat and sun mornings ( in bed with us to allow a lie in :)

But none at all mon-fri or over the weekend other than hour in am.

They aren't bothered at all tbh but don't know any difference I suppose

We have a lot of CDs with story tapes and children's music that they listen too throughout the day

Can you try and introduce ' quiet time' whilst you cook, so maybe some comfy beanbags or end of sofa each with a story tape on and a choice of books next to them.

It may take a while as new for them but this is what we do with eldest over naptime if he chooses not to sleep and it works well.

May Over the next few weeks you could let little one know that if they try and look at some pictures/ books alone and listen to tape/ music then at the end of the week they could help choose another story tape ( help buil up a collection)

richman I know what you mean, as I have stressed over it in the past, but I think 45m isnt much especially if they're doing lots of things as well, everyone needs downtime! I tend to get my DS (2.8) to watch something pretty/semi educational or active to ease my guilt...

I have 3 pre-schoolers and they don't watch TV at all. Though the two older ones (4 and 3) do watch 20 mins of stuff on the iPad about 3 times a week with DH, which is of course much the same as TV.

I have been kind of convinced by the reports saying TV is damaging for under-2s, so the older ones didn't do the iPad thing until they were over 2 (and hopefully neither will 1yo DD).

When DD turns 2, I think we will introduce some TV, but will think long and hard in advance about how to have very specific parameters around it (maybe only on one or two days a week, and they can each choose one programme to record and have available for those times - that sort of thing).

I stress about how much TV DD watches. On a bad day she will watch an hour. On a good day it is none. Most days are somewhere in between! I like the idea of story tapes for a downtime.

DS is 2.3 years old and we limit TV a lot as he otherwise starts to tantrum when it gets turned off. We limit him to 3 or 4 episodes of his favourite cartoon in the morning and afternoon, although he often only watches it in the morning. As his current favourites are Peppa and Thomas, that means he watches around 30-45 mnutes a day. We find he's a lot less prone to tantrums when the telly's not on much, and we have banned it before as the result of tantrums.
We also keep the TV off for ourselves until DS goes to bed.

amy Same issue for us- sometimes I think the tantrum post-Peppa is not worth the 20 mins of peace to have a shower that Peppa bestows . He is getting better though as he now knows that no amount of stropping will make me relent.

Brighton Yeah, I try to convince myself that "The word on the street" (free Sesame st podcast) is not really TV as DS now knows what an amphibian and binoculars are.