Toddlers and telly

[Jane7]

How do you stop your toddler from standing right up at the TV instead of watching it from a distance. This might sound like a silly problem, but I find it almost impossible to get my 15 month old dd to stay still on her cushion or on the sofa and watch CBeebies or whatever it is that we're watching. She just shuffles over to tv and pulls up and then screams when I ask her to sit over with me (or drag her back).
She doesn't watch much telly, just half an hour or so in evenings when I'm preparing her supper, but as soon as my back has turned she's up nose-to-nose with the screen, pushing all the buttons and leaving dirty hand marks on the screen - and this can't be good for her eyes. We're thinking of building a special telly unit up high, out of her reach, but this seems extreme. Will she grow out of it, does anyone know?

you could say 'sit nicely or the telly goes off' and follow through

also move her away every single time she touches

this is a v wearying stage

Thanks boyslikedogs. It is indeed a wearying stage - i'm glad to hear it is just a stage

ds1 is 3.5yrs and did this, we've had to do 'rapid return' style to the sofa, took a couple of days and he will drift to telly if its somehing really interesting butdid help

buy a big flat screen and mount it up on the wall. they have to sit back to watch it. overkill i know but at least it stays clean

We've done what moocowme suggested - DH was always fretting about his precious gadgetry being damaged until then

I don't know the answer to this - my TV is covered in handprints too. Is she normally ok seeing things in the distance?

i think shes just too young to sit in front of the tv. they have such short attention spans. if you dont draw her attention to it in the first place, she probably wont bother. i cant see why a 15 month old should be watching tv anyway...

Because the OP would like half an hour of peace to prepare supper perhaps..?

I did what BALD suggested, asked DS to sit every time he got up and turned it off if he didn't. He soon stopped. He was just coming up for 2.

Being the naughty parents that we are, we have a playpen in the lounge. If the TV is on, generally DD is in there.

However that said, the TV is only generally on in the mornings when my DW is in the shower and needs somewhere safe to put DS where he can still expend some energy.

Our TV is still covered in hand-prints, DS is practicing cruising!

Had this problem,at about this age, drove DH insane.
I got him a bean bag chair, and would do rapid return kinda thing. took a while, but now if he doesnt have his chair, he will sit on the floor.

Have you noticed any problems with her vision?

If she is short -sighted she may struggle to see the TV from the sofa.

If you have any worries go to GP and they can refer her to get her eyes tested?

My DS tried to watch tv close sometimes. We have now just got one mounted on the wall but before I would tell him that unless he moved back, the tv would go off and always followed through. He always moved back and it would go straight back on (he is a bit older than your DD though).

Oh and god forbid we allow our DCs a small amount of tv of a programme that they really enjoy!!

Thanks for all these posts. Hadn't checked all day, and suddenly, bam, everyone got involved. Love that about Mumsnet. Hope it doesn't mean my dd is shortsighted that seems to like being right up close to telly. She does it with all screens from laptops to cameras, so I think she's just excited about touching them. We're thinking of mounting the TV which in a ways is a cop out but at least it will solve the proble. Like the idea of rapid return to her cushion as well, although when I've done that in the past, she's got really frustrated.

I'm pretty sure they're just fascinated by the characters (or just lights and patterns??) and want to get up close to them. DS is the same, he'd prefer to stand nose-to-nose to our big flatscreen, but will now, when asked, sit on a cushion (his 'tv' cushion) 6ft back from it and can obviously see perfectly well.
We just told him if he wanted to watch Peppa (for example) he had to sit on his cushion. I returned him to the cushion several times and now he goes to get the cushion when he's trying to suggest it's time to watch something.
I think it's like lots of things, you decide what the rule is, tell them, and keep it consistent.

We are lucky enough to have sky+ so when DD gets too close we tell her to go to her cushion and is she doesn't then we pause it and wait until she does, it makes a single episode of Peppa last ages