do you have any " not v" days?

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I agree with Marthamoo's post of 9.49.

Right have to go now and live my life.

Zebra - I know what you mean about ads aimed at children but that's the beauty of cbeebies in my opinion. Our dd is allowed an hour a day - the bedtime hour on cbeebies when we are feel we need a break - although I must admit to putting it on at other times to distract her when we need to get on with something.

As for the ads on adult television when my dh and I watch it ( roughly about 2 hours in the evening except on the one night a week we go out together) we always mute them because they get on our nerves so much. We have most of our catch up conversations then!

I agree with the person that pointed out that there is a happy medium between 6 hours a day and nothing but if you don't want a telly that's your choice. I would definitely miss it personally. ( Sometimes at the end of a long day I don't want to talk - I just want to be entertained!)

fio I am similar, they can watch tv all day if they like - its raining outside, the builders are here, I have work to do, they've 'done' drawing and reading and dancing to music already today.

agree with whoever said having a designated day was confusing.

Obv. there are some days where we don't watch telly, we often go to the beach in the holidays and its a long day and there is no time for telly.

No difference between my friends kids who have no telly and mine except... the non-tv kids only ever want to watch tv when they come round here when my kids want to play with them

no tv before breakfast in our house, and then only while i'm clearing up before we get on with the rest of hte day. then an hour or so teatime, a dvd or cbeebies. couldn't do adverts..but dd1 does ask to watch the news sometimes (thank god the teatime one is pretty sanitised) and has learned a lot about iraq & tony bleugh bleugh..

dont care about ads either as mine love them but still don't ever ask for anything, they have no pester power...yet

Is anybody on MN "normal", Fio?

Internet is more interactive & informative, than most telly shows, and you can avoid the adverts more easily (ime).

I think that unless you've lived without a tv for a while then you don't understand how nice it can be. I will report back to y'all in 20 years about whether my kids went OTT on telly as soon as they were living on their own. Presumably they will be eating all junk food and living in terrible debt, too.

We do TV before breakfast whilst DD has her bottle (yes I know she's nearly 3 ) of milk and ds has bf in my bed. Once we come downstairs there is no TV until 5pm and dd has to help me tidy her toys before I switch it on. She only ever watches Cbeebies or Milkshake if she's up early. On Friday afternoons she has a rest in my bed and gets to watch a video.

When they had chickenpox I relied on Cbeebies a lot more, and I fpund it noticeable that once she was better, but still watching lots of TV, her ability to play was affected - and I notice the same in a friends twins who watch TV for hours each day - they don't seem as able to amuse themselves without the TV. And the glazed look dd was getting on her face, and teh way she would not respond to mewhen watching, did get me worried about her seeing too much.

prufrock, only got dd1 to give hers up at around 4...and she still pines for a bottle..

A freind of a friend has no tv every other week, Which is ridiculous as you could never follow a series.

We don't have 'no tv' days although we do have days where we are doing other things and don't watch any.

We have some rules, no tv before breakfast at the weekend and on school days they can't have it on until they are ready to go to school/ nursery. I limit it the rest of the time and am trying with DS (5) for him to specify WHAT he wants to watch rather than just 'can we have the tv on'. I started a thread recently about my ds growing out of cbeebies and that has affected how we deal with tv - I felt happy with most of the Cbeebies programmes but I do restrict his viewng more now he wants CBBC - there seems very little around for the 5-7 age group.

Funnily enough he's never watched power rangers, spiderman, ninja turtles etc but he still asks for these toys and plays with them. He picks things up from his peers, books, comics etc. Agree very much with whoever said that good tv is fine - there are plenty of books I wouldn't let him have too.

In the summer holidays we suggested to kids (8and5) , if maybe they went without TV for a month, we could reward them with an extra outing they could choose themselves. It was a bit tongue in cheek, but amazingly they went for it!!! They really didn't miss it and we just spent all day outside in garden or park, and they actually played with their toys ! We then went to Chessington at the end of the holidays and had a great day out.

I think TV is a necessary chill-out at their ages, after a hard day at school and homework, but not so much in the holidays. We now often have one day in half term etc where they are allowed to watch tv solidly, all day if they like (they rarely actually choose to do this!!) and then have none for the rest of the week. We find that prolonged tv watching, esp at weekends, makes them sluggish and grumpy!

Agree with puddle - greatest source of pester power from DS is his peers.

I can't imagine living entirely without a TV, but I like to think swe're discriminating in what we (and ds ) watch.

Ds watches fairly little during the week, but we rejoiced once he knew how to switch on telly and get his own breakfast, because we now get to lie in until 8:30 or 9:00a.m. on Sunday mornings

(I know, I'm a bad parent)

We love the telly in our house. We try to avoid italian telly though as it is awful! Mum tapes CBeebies for ds and stuff for me too and we have lots of dvds and videos too! It keeps ds quiet for a while and lets me on Mumsnet!

BTW, just out of curiosity, is XZebra the same person as Zebra???????

Dh's parents wouldn't let him watch t.v as child don't think they had one - once he got older he got obcessed with it - even had to have it on to sleep - he's not as bad now as he know's he can watch it when he wants.

DD watch's lots of t.v (cbbebies/playhouse disney / nickjnr) and i think they've really helped her speech (has learning difficultys) she can't talk alot but can speak to 10 in spainish perfectly (thanks to dora)

I also feel compelled to air my opinions on this issue.
I can say that good Tv is good as it can be informative and educational. I also think that TV can provide good entartainment for the childrean and adult alike. Just use common sense. I also see that my doughter has benefitedfrom watching for example CBeebies. you have no idea how lucky you are to have the BBC. you should really go to Italy to see what bad television is. Of course my dd is not stuck in front of it all day (she goes to nursery full time and we do lots of things/outings together at the weekend) and she will not be allowed one in her room. But she does watch it everyday (loves Teletubbies, fimbles and smarteenies to mention some oh and animals documentaries etc) and she often wonders off to play with her toys. she is very intelligent, alert, curious, outgoing, talkative and she also loves books very much and she can amuse herself also. I also watch Tv with her and interact with her when watching (singing and dancing together when the opportunity arises and also commenting on what we are watching). As a full time working single mum with no help, it also gives me the opportunity to do household chores etc when every other distraction fails. I would also go as far to say that i think they might be missing out on good TV if they do not watch it at all. I love the news and plenty of adult reports and current affairs programmes that are unmissable. Dont forget little angels as an example of good TV. how can you not have a TV?

We don't have a tv either, I don't miss it and can hold a conversation at work by reading Now magazine so I don't think I appear that odd. I don't think we will bother getting one until ds or dd really pester (which they haven't up until now). They don't really know what they are missing so aren't bothered. We occassional watch a DVD on the laptop an ds has a Thomas DVD which gets watched when dh hasn't taken laptop to work, but he isn't that bothered. We had a letter saying the TV licence people are coming around again to check we still haven't got one, looking forward to that one!

I think I may be the one zebra referred to with 3 kids under 4 and the subversive granny .

I guess I would say we are light consumers of kids tv. We videoed Come Outside, and also have some Rosie and Jim (which I personally find annoying but the kids love). Most week days they maybe have 1/2 an hour before tea - keeps them quiet while we get food ready. They are happy to keep rewatching the same things - they don't get bored - I do . They would watch for hours if left to their own devices. Often at the weekends they don't watch it at all, and less in summer and more in winter.

They are unaware that there a regular times on tv when kids programs are shown, although the older one does recognise Tractor Tom, and many other characters that we have rarely seen on tv - not sure where he has picked it up from .

I personally hate cartoons - I hate the short attention span and the unreality of it all (and the American accents ). My boys would be happy to watch them but are just as fascinated watching wildlife programs, or even Time Team . So we skip the cartoons.

We (DH and I) watch quite a lot of TV (much of it videod and watched at a later date) in the evenings - too brain dead by then to do much else (although in summer we tend to be outside more). I think there is a load of rubbish on, but you can find some good stuff.

actually to be more correct it is the nanny that is subversive - granny is almost faultless

I think I need to just say that a comment in my earlier post, may have come across the wrong. applogies if it annoyed or offended anyone that wasn't my intention. To correct myself.... because marketing is so sucessful kids can get influenced by it (as adults we are also influenced by it constantly)and it can lead to the 'i want' situation and unnecessary fights. I realised also that I sound like my father being very OTT about TV - we didn't have one until I was 7 and he cut the plug off regularly to stop us watching it because he felt we watched it too much (another story I won't bore (sp?) you with). There is some very good TV, educational, current affairs and pure entertainment - having lived in the states for a wee while I know what crap TV is - Italian TV runs it a close second! - it's a question of being discerning and for me not just having it on for the sake of it but using it for a purpose. I ideally want DS to have exposure to as many different experiences and ideas and attitudes as possible - but do feel that some TV just fosters sterotypical attitudes and ideas and doesn't encourage you to think for yourself - just to be led - if you're not aware of it, if you are and happy with that that's fine too. {probably just setting myself up as custard pie target again }

where are all the pro TV people on mumsnet? only a few I have seen.

I agree with that point made that Tv can be a powerful tool encouraging sterotypical attitudes and ideas, but so can be said of many other 'media, 'institutions' and environments you live. someone could think that this thread is fostering the sterotype that Tv=bad.the majoirity of the postings before they say anything else, say how they manage it/restrict. I am guilty of this . could it be because we are also under peer pressure here? we want to feel we are good mums as be seen as good mums/ and not gaining a bad reputation here. well i am fairly new and i do not want to start on the wrong foot.
imo it it is up to us the parents (hopefully schools but even they can be biased, arent there?) to encourage our children to think for themsleves and confront these issues. my opinion is that avoiding the situations doesn't help. i do not expect everything to be unbised on TV, and i know when a balanced view is not broadcast. And I think this is true of so many people, we are aware of the weaknesses but we still like it. and anyway,Im sure there is long way to go but there is diversity in british tv which is a good thing and i see progress. another point I have seen coming up again and again, is the assumption in some posting that TV is all about gossips and dumbing down. there are programmes that actually can make adults and children think. there is some choice of point of views.

and the snobbery towards popular culture...what is wrong with enjoying eastenders, little britain, the simpsons or other light entertainment? doesn't mean that everyone is going to be brainwashed.

why watching the same DVDs when there are new ones of the same being broadcast? i wouold understand if the program itself was being banned...there are no ads on BBC if this is the problem.or am I missing something on this?