So, all lentil weavers and anti-TV believers, what do you do all day?

[Nikki23]

Especially with toddlers?

painting
playdough
collage
cooking
puzzles
stories
tea parties
make tents
dress up
outings to park,pet shop,library,music group,
etc etc etc

there's soooooooo much to do

ps not a lentil weaver..don't think
& ds watches half an hour of a video after his supper {grin]

Painting, drawing, play-doh. Walk & play park or soft play if it's crap weather. Lots of baking - scones etc. Have a CD of nursery rhymes to sing along to & do actions. She enjoys "helping" with housework & has a toy mop, duster etc. If all else fails we throw balls around in the hall and she chases after them. Am not totally anti-TV, she might get a sit down for 20 minutes or so for a DVD but she gets bored and stops watching of her own accord.

Have a useful book called Entertaining & Educating your preschool child (Usbourne publishing, got it off Amazon on recommendation of a MNer!).

So bar say an hour of eating and 30min of TV, you spend 12 hours a day playing? Honestly?

Not 12 hours thank God - by the time we've done breakfast, shower etc it's after 9am and she goes down at 7pm. Dh takes over when he gets back from work & will usually do the weekly bath.

My secret weapon is she goes to nursery 2 afternoons a week - bliss! Means I can get supermarket shopping & ironing done and have a cup of tea and MN in peace !

painting, printing, cutting/sticking, plasticine, walking, collecting bits for nature table, reading, playing with globe/atlas, writing/tracing, playing hide and seek, moving to music/dancing, making up stories, going to library/park/friends' houses, playing music, singing, playing word games, dressing up, doing puzzles, playing simple board games, digging at allotment, tidying up/cooking - not enough time in the day to do all the things I would like to do and keep the house vaguely habitable too.

That's not to say I don't get thoroughly fed up and jaded with it occasionally (who doesn't, whatever their job?) And they do watch the odd video/tv programme. It's just not a default activity!

no
up at 8ish
breakfst 9-9.30
play or out until lunch
lunch 1-1.30 ish
sleep 1.30-3.30
play or out-3.30-5.00
tea 5.30
half hour of tv,stories,bath,songs,snuggles
bed 8.00

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They're on MN on day

I wish I could be one of you 'no tv' guys. unfortunately I would be plagued with alapecia and spend most of my time rocking quitely in a corner.

all day

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Dd won't bloody watch TV! Anyway I hate having it on during the day. It's going to all go t*ts up when I have number 2......

i'm a lentil weaver but I need telly.

I made a decision when I decided to be a SAHM that daytime telly had to be banned. It's suicide having the TV on all the time, it drains all your energy and stops you doing anything else. I do let them watch it when they are ill though, we tuck ourselves up under a duvet and watch cartoons

Tis true I spend much more time on here than I should - but it generally slots in when the boys are either asleep or engrossed in something (not the telly!!). The good thing about MN is that you can pop in, make a couple of choice barbed remarks and bugger off again.

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absolutely greensleeves
and keeps us sane

When I was ill for quite a long while, before the kids were born, I did retreat into watching telly like a zombie all day - I could literally get from 9am until 6pm with out a gap, I watched all the worst crap and got more and more lonely and miserable. So when I decided to stay at home with the kids, I did promise myself that Iwouldn't let the telly take over again. So it's not an entirely lentil-driven thing....

actually I never watched tv during the day when I was sahm but like cod, cbbees for hour after lunch let me tidy up etc and recharge batteries.

(my mum thought watching tv during the daytime meant you were headed for hell in a handbasket/..handcart..shopping basket - or whatever that bizarre old lady expression is )

Nikki, I try to plan going to as many groups as possible, or visit friends/invite them round because I find it really difficult to entertain ds at home all day by myself. But we do inevitably have days where we don't go out at all (especially at this time of year). I suppose it endangers my lentil-credentials, but I do let ds watch some tv/dvds. Not all day, but at various intervals throughout the day - sometimes it is the only way for me to get half an hour's peace to get something done. I don't feel happy about it though, and if a day or two goes by when we've had no tv I feel great.

I think the key is to get them out for at least an hour a day whatever the weather.
If I do that, I don't feel guilty for not playing with him.

My two year old likes to 'help' me around the house. He loads and unloads the dishwasher, puts stuff in the washing machine, 'folds' clothes, puts as many toy cars as he can possibly find in an unpheasably long line and sometimes moans and holds onto my legs.

I do stories with him and sometimes play with him. He's not that keen on telly, but he'll watch it if he's tired as a way of dropping off.

It's a Godsend at times.

I have four and my ds3 is the only one who watched too much telly. He doesn't so much now but I remember feeling a mixture between guilt and relief when he switched it on because I knew he would sit in front of it for ages.

It is a crap passtime and we are addicted as a nation. There's a good book called Remotely Controlled on the subject, written by sexy dad of four, Aric Sigumd.

At the moment dd1 (who's 8) has disappeared up to her bedroom.
Ds2, who was 7 yesterday, is uncovering dinosaur eggs from a kit he got for his birthday.
DS3 - who's nearly 5 - is helping DH cook spag bol which he learned about at school today.
DS4 is, um, watching Cbeebies. Whoops!

He has been out twice though and he's tired. Anyway, I want to MN so there.

I think a bit of tv can be great when they are tired and overwrought. Everything in moderation. I like selective tv watching too - I never put it on in response to 'can we watch tv'. If there's something they specifically want to see (and it's on at the time) then we have it on and switch it off when it's finished.

Spidermama, I think it's a good plan to try and get out every day whatever the weather. I didn't have a tv for a year while I was at uni, it was good, we all did things and talked to each other. Although I have to admit that when I met dp at that time part of the attraction was that he had a tv