Do you let your under two watch TV?

[triton]

Despite best intentions (my pfb didn't watch any TV until he was two and a half, and even then half an hour a day) my 23 month old dd has been watching TV (up to an hour a day).

It saves my sanity at times and means I can cook nice meals at teatime. I only allow an hour max and she gets plenty of other one to one appropiate stimulation but I still feel guilty. She adores that waybuloo rubbish, her eyes just glaze over. But oh that bit of peace is far too precious!

I feel guilty though. Am I damaging her brain as the papers would have us believe? If I had never introduced TV would she have learnt other ways to entertain herself while I cook tea, or would I have to put up with her clinging to my leg and screeching?

Where did you read about it damaging her brain? Was it the daily mail ?. I think in a rose-tinted, child-rearing utopia we would all fill our days with a lovely schedule of wall-to-wall activites, stimulating play, home-grown food and angelic children. However the reality is that life with more than one child, or even just one, can be stressful, boring, repetitive and quite often crap. Do not feel guilty about letting her watch TV, especially to do something worthwhile like cook FGS, why do you think CBeebies exists?

P.S mine are currently watching "Sleeping Beauty" whilst I post, prior to cooking tea, obviously .

Thanks lovecheese! You speak much sense, I am just having one of those guilty mum panics!

Yes I have discovered the wonderful cbeebies - fab!

DD (20 months) watches Waybuloo/In the Night Garden most evenings, she loves it. In fact, 'Lau Lau' was one of her first words. I also get her to watch some Dutch TV on the internet during the weekends, for language development, and so me and DP can have our morning coffee in peace!

I don't think it's harming her, but if she's a homicidal axe murder in 18 years time, I'll let you know and we will all understand that the damage started with Lau Lau.

Ciske

triton, I am just impressed that your child has got to 23 months before watching any TV! DD3 has been exposed to TV from the day she came home from hospital from an, ahem, early age due to having older siblings - she once asked to sing the Boudicca song from "Horrible Histories" at playgroup whilst other children were requesting Humpty Dumpty

16 month old DD was sat eating her lunch on my Ikea stepstool (makes a great little mini picnic bench for little ones!) completely engrossed watching Beauty and the Beast. Well, for about 8 and a half minutes at least and then she threw her juice on the floor and stomped off to play with her brothers pushchair. But baby steps.

My 3 year old DS has a full and stimulating life, with painting, drawing, running, trips to the park, play dates and sessions at preschool. He loves ball games, board games, books and is very good with his numbers.

But if cBeebies didn't exist, I would lose the will to live. Sometime I use it when I want to cook or clean in peace (without my little helper!!) but mostly I use it when I need a cuppa and some MN time!! I'm 32 weeks pregnant and permanently shattered. Thank goodness for Mr Tumble, Charley Bear and Peppa Pig.

No doubt someone will be along soon to quote an obscure report that proves DS won't be able to concentrate for more than a nanosecond when he's thirteen and to claim they simply "understand" the "need" for it, but quite frankly, there are far worse things a child can experience than a bit of chill out time in front of the telly!!

oh no lovecheese dd has been exposed a lot longer than that because her older brother watches it! At 13 months she would jig excitedly when Driver Dan's story train started

I suppose I would put it on for ds (who is 5) and not really expect her to take notice. My ds wasn't interested in the tv before 2. However I think she was slowly getting hooked. I think it is just that now I really notice how much she likes it because she does ask for 'cartoons' and 'beebies on'.

Yes she also enjoys drawing, stories, playing and going out. Her vocabulary is good because I do interact and play with her. But she is clingy and loud and full on so that little bit of peace helps.

I was very pfb with ds and was probably a bit smug about how little tv he watched. However on the rare occasion I put it on, he wasn't that interested. My ds is quite a logical thinker who likes numbers and how things work. My dd on the other hand seems to love drawing and stories and I wonder if the TV appeals to her imagination. I know I would have loved waybuloo as a kid, for its complete surreal nature and sparkly magic . I was a tv addict (even shock horror had one in my room) and now at 32 I would much rather read a book than watch tv

Yes I let DD watch some in the morning while I'm getting the breakfast ready and the evening for a bit.

I watched a programme about how they just don't learn from TV until they are over two. I don't expect the TV to teach her anything so just use it to amuse her for a while. Like many others have said, there is still lots of time to do playing, walks, parks, etc and DD tends to potter about too when the telly is on, checking what I'm up to or playing.

I think as long as one doesn't fool themselves into thinking that they are learning from it and use it as a substitute parent or teacher then you shouldn't feel bad.

I remember my friend telling me how a farming programme was teaching her 4 month old where crops orginate from and how they get to the table.

I think what you've said in your OP is fine

Younger siblings have no choice if the older ones watch TV, as you said

As long as it's not for hours on end I don't see a prob

TV is good wind-down time if mine are tired after school and don't want to be in the park or garden

Yes, my 23 month old watches CBeeBees. Otherwise I would get nothing done have time to MN.

Really, SlightlyScrambled? I find my son does respond to certain things on the TV, such as sending Mr Tumbles Spotty Bag (he touches his nose) so I do think he is maybe learning something. At least where his nose is!!

DS (20 months) sees far too much TV - he wakes up at 5am most mornings so CBeebies tends to come on at 6am and stay on for 2 or 3 hours. He isn't actually watching all that time but loves songs or anything with animals in. Definitely feel I should cut back a bit though - perhaps when he manages to sleep in until 5.30 I'll have the energy!

Many countries, including the States, provide the guideline that children under 2 should watch no tv, from 2 years to 3ish years of age no more than 10 minutes a day. Apparently, what is particularly harmful (for their speech development) is if the tv/radio is on constantly during the day, as they 'switch off' and stop listening.

My daughter (who is 2 1/2) was not that interested in the tv until she was about two years anyway, but now she loves watching tv. We'll let her watch either a DVD or Peppa Pig which we've 'taped' on Sky+ so that we fast forward past all the commercials. We limit the tv watching to the weekends (no more than an hour per day)as it was just so difficult to limit her to the 10 minutes that is the recommended guideline.

Having said that, we do sometimes let her watch tv during the week if we must get something done, but I always feel very guilty about it.

Yes. DS only really started watching cbeebies when his little sister was born, he was 22mo. She's 2.8 now so has seen a hell of a lot of tv in that time.

Nowadays it's on all the time . In my defence they are at nursery 4 days a week so there's hardly any tv on those days. We often have a lazy saturday with the tv on all day, sometimes they sit down and watch it, sometimes they are playing or in the garden.

Yes of course! Life would be pretty unbearable sometimes without cbeebies.

I actually think my 2 boys have learnt loads from Cbeebies. They sing and count along when small and learn stuff from Nina and the neurons etc when older.
Great stuff!!

Tee - all research does is generalise. Maybe some can learn from it before two. The part of the programme that stuck in my mind was they had groups of babies, about 6 months old, one group met with a Mandarin speaker everyday for a few weeks. Next group watched the mandarin speaker on TV everyday, and a placebo group who never came into contact with any mandarin.
They tested the groups to see if they understood any words in mandarin and they only group who did were the ones who had direct contact.

But it was just something I saw on telly myself so I can't say that there are no exceptions or definites.

Yes, next question.

Yes!

God my tv is often on from when we get up to when we go to bed.
DP's family were big tv watchers so he like to have the tv on even if he's not watching it.
I tend to switch it off if there is nothing on, pretty hard with about 500 channels on Sky.
The DC's all watch some tv during the day and I don't think it has affected them greatly, DD1 is doing well at her GCSE's and is sociable, DD2 likes to play and if the tv is not on she doesn't cry for it. She likes her favourites like Humf and Dora but then that helps to amuse her whilst I make tea.

I don't understand why us mums give ourselves such a hard time over things like this. So long as you don't plonk them there and never speak to them I don't see the harm in teh odd 1/2 hour or so to let you get some peace.

Mine watch 1/2 hour after each meal we eat at home to give me time to have my meal/chill out for a bit - they are 15m and like chugginton, waybulloo and octonauts. I'm under no illusion they are learning anything from it.

I try not to have it on in the background during the day (DH is worse at this than me, but my nagging reminding him is starting to have an effect) but DS (6 months) and I do watch Deal or No Deal as our wind-down every afternoon...I think he is starting to smile at Noel now [guilty emoticon]

Nope - we don't have TV. 2 yr old dd sits on the side and watches/ 'helps' when I'm cooking, or plays by herself. If I need to get something particular done then I wait till she's busying herself somewhere else or having a nap. Appreciate a no-TV life isn't for everyone though!