what are your rules around watching TV...

[mummy23x]

Do you let your children sit for hours in the morning after they have woken watching TV for example from 7.30 am to 10.00 - 11.00 am??

I have a DS1 aged 7 DSS aged 3 DS2 aged 6 months and another baby due in October. Although we do things as a family, I feel the children excluding 6 month old, should be able to entertain themselves without feeling like TV is there main source of entertainment...

I'd be interested to hear how other mums and dads do this..... :)

doesnt bother me how much they watch and we dont really limit time although we have it on the music channels just now for background and ds is on his dsi and dd is on her laptop!

This probably isn't particularly helpful as DD1 is only 3 so boundaries are a bit stricter, but she watches between 20mins-1hour in the mornings. Occasionally she watches a bit more than that but it's fairly rare. I would prefer she watched 30mins max, but tbh my wish to get on with breakfast/getting dressed/sorting out DD2 sometimes overrides my control over the tv! However that's it for the day, unless she's very tired when I might let her watch 20 mins before dinner or lunch.

I find it's much easier to limit her tv when she watches individual programmes on Replay/a DVD, rather than just watching CBeebies when it's very easy for one programme to slip into the next and before I know it she's been watching for ages.

When DD2 was first born, DD1 probably watched 1.5 hours or more each morning (and then something again later in the day) as it gave me more time to get myself and DD2 sorted/fed etc. I wasn't thrilled about it but you've got to survive

I don't worry about it. He watches what he watches.

DD nearly 7 and DS 5.

I limit "screen time" (tv, computers, DSi etc) to 2 hours a day. I am pretty strict on it and it's usually less than 2 hours. We only have one TV in the house. They use my laptop and have a DSi each.

On a school day they will usually have about half an hour in the morning and 3/4 - 1 hr in the evening.

Once or twice I did let them go downstairs and watch tv whilst we had a lie in (we can hear them) but couldn't relax and I also found their behaviour was appalling on those days.

I also have a rule at weekends that homework must be done before they have any computer time.

I am the strictest of any parent I know on this.

Have just noticed this is on Discussions of the day, bit bizarre as it's only got four posts (well five now including this one), not exactly a hot topic!

ours dont have homework at the weekends so that isnt an issue. I havent found any difference in behaviour when they watch tv either. We have been swimming, the kids have been out playing most of the rest of the day so a bit of downtime is fine and if that involves the dsi or laptop then that is ok with me.

I am pregnant at the moment with high BP and possible beginnings of pre-eclampsia so Cbeebies is my best friend as it is preventing me from ending up in hospital. But to be honest it is more like background noise which occasionally gets DS's full attention. I just put out a selection of activities in the morning and he flits from one to another both inside and out and when DH gets home from work we tidy up together.

DS is nearly 4. The 2 main rules I have are no TV after evening bath, and if the TV is on it must be being watched, i.e. not on in the background.

It's not on all day. It's mostly easy to distract DS into doing something else. So 2 hours maybe? He does play games on the ipad and cbeebies website, as well though.

One more rule to add to my post above - no screen time in the hour before bed.

One advantage of my strictness is that when the TV is on they are glued to it and completely absorbed, so I really do get time to get on while they watch / use the laptop. They make the most of it.

heartmoonshadow. Even I would relax my rules in your position. Hope all goes well for you.

I keep it to an hour of screen time a day DS is 7 and DD is 4. At the weekend we watch a film so that's about 1.5 hours? We usually watch replay tv so that it's individual programmes rather than just switching it on and having one programme run in to another.

I'm pretty strict about it because I think there is more to do than watch tv. They usually watch it while I make the dinner etc.

Having said that I'm a complete hypocrite and watch far too much tv once they are in bed! However as a child I watched almost no tv because I'm so old that there really wasn't much tv to watch!

I am a childminder, so am overly careful not to have the TV on too much. I put on age appropriate programmes (1 year olds) and note in the daily books what the children have watched. I think having the TV on all the time takes away from the children enjoying certain programmes as it becomes the norm, and they don't really watch anything properly. I play it by ear, sometimes when they are tired I pit on a nice calm programme before a nap, or maybe when they are a bit lively I put on music and have a dance about with them. I never have things like chat shows on during the day, as I hate the shouting.

I allow mine to watch it when they like really. Although if it gets into several hours and the weather is great outside I do make them turn it off and play outside.

My other rule is no Tracey Beaker - I don't like how she has a strop and then everyone gives into her.

Also DS1 has a nothing scary rule, as he gets nightmares.

Very little. DS is 2. Never saw the tv so much as switched on till he was well past 1 (my parents thought I was very weird on this - nobody was allowed to turn the box on unless DS was asleep or out!). We record Thomas & Friends and Peppa Pig and that's it. No films and absolutely no live tv, thereby cutting out all the adverts and inane rambling of the presenters in between.

I think he is learning loads from these two shows and he absorbs lots of the language and plots and tells me about them in great detail.

He also plays with the Ipad a fair bit...

I don't really understand why but I feel tv is A Bad Thing and although I use it when I need it (cooking, showering, making phone calls etc) I feel really uncomfortable with it.

One thing I hate though is when people leave it on all day when no-one is watching it. Around children anyway. I think little ones need a quiet to play and concentrate.

We're usually too busy to watch too much TV. this morning the TV was on from when DC woke up (unusually late at 7.30 untill they left for tennis at 8.30. We then watched The Voice this evening, or rather I did while they chatted over it, ruining my experience.

I have been known to order my children to sit down and watch TV when they are fighting/attempting to destroy my house. I know one mother who takes the TV away completely if her children misbehave. I would never do that. I use TV to keep my children still for half an hour.

No tv during the week/school nights but Saturday morning tv is something my dd looks forward to if we don't have plans to go out. No more than an hour generally as she goes upstairs to play and I end up turning the tv off (dislike hearing the tv playing to itself, grrr).
She is excited to watch it but gets bored with it after a few programmes tbh. She would much rather watch a dvd instead

I never limited TV

..I have switched on the tv for Peppa when dd has a rare early morning. The tv isn't on to start with so she isn't tempted to change channels or even switch it on. Mostly she likes to write and draw with any extra time so I think why spoil that?

If you think about it, TV is simply a modern version of a book; another media from which to learn and relax.

Children can gain so much from children's tv now and they soak up so much from it.

Before bed is a bit different as it keep their brain active instead of getting into sleep mode but at weekends, I don't limit it for ours but tbh, they choose that as well as other activities (playing out on bikes/trampoline etc) so evens itself out.

What really annoys me though is when DS (7) says he won't get dressed until Hero 108 has finished at 8:45! School starts at 8:50 so i then have over a mile to drive, after getting him dressed and get him through the doors in 5 mins flat! Me thinks I need to redress the rules ;)

My dd's godmother didn't have a tv as a child until she was about 8 years old. Her parents rule was that they wouldn't have a tv in the house until both her and her younger sister had learned to read... apparently her sister took her time learning anyway, lol.

They do have a house FULL of books - there are bookcases lining all the walls in the upstairs hallway, and most of the bedrooms have a bookcase, as well as one wall of the living room lined in books, so they are avid readers to say the very least.

I can't say that it's made a discernable difference. Sure, my friend is pretty well read and is quite cultured I guess, but no more so than anyone else I know. Also, she certainly made up for lost time and has a pretty huge DVD collection nowadays which includes a number of tv series.

Kids wake up at 7 during the week as DS has to be at nursery at 9. So from 7 - 7:30, DS and DD are allowed to watch channel five e.g. peppa pig/ben and holly etc then they get dressed/eat breakfast etc. DS comes home from nursery around 12 and i take them somewhere for the afternoon, then from 5 to 6 they are allowed to watch cbeebies bedtime hour as they are often tired by this stage and it prepares them for dinner, bath and bed which follow. We are quite strict with TV in our house as DS gets really tired/grumpy if he watches to much tv, so i let them watch it when i need to get on with stuff e.g. making the dinner etc.

We don't have TV, but do let ds(5) and ds (4) watch DVDs and iPlayer on the computer - obviously, this requires more effort and choice as what to watch - and they only have a couple of 20 minute programmes per day. So I guess I am pretty strict on this, relative to some others. They do, however, get very confused if we go someplace with a TV that you can't just choose the programme you want, like on iPlayer or DVD - they just don't get that programmes are broadcast on TV, rather than all there waiting for them like iPlayer!

But DCs are very happy to amuse themselves with toys / books / puzzles / games / in the garden / etc - as that is what they are used to. So if you wanted to encourage this more, then I guess it makes sense to reduce the amount of TV time they have ? or use it mainly for when you really need to calm them down / keep them occupied / feed the newly arrived dc?

Pawan, thanks for the idea - I just looked at Demand Five and found loads of Peppa Pig episodes DS hasn't seen. DW and I love on-demand TV, as it saves us the stress of trying to get DS in bed etc on time for our show , but I'd never thought to use it for kids' shows.