I never thought I'd be "that" parent!!!

[ZowieBowie]

My 11 month old traces her hand when she sees In The Night Garden start!!! But I only put it on when I'm desperate ( about twice a week) And I'm a teacher who is guilty if massive eye rolls when hearing about children watching TV... What happened???

God me too, you wait the list gets sooooo much longer!

Let me point out also that we are bringing up DTD's bilingual English/Italian but they often speak Spanish from watching Dora the Explorer shoot me now

Agh! No doubt it will get worse! For Christmas I told all who asked what she would like as a gift I replied " oh, she loves books!" Well she does, but the biggest hit on the day was a Dora back back- and she's never seen Dora! I think those eyes are hypnotising her!

I'm that parent and never thought I wouldn't be. Not a big deal

Oh yes. My son has started to inform me, when he does something that I say isn't funny, that "it's a little bit funny mummy". Cheers Peppa! On the plus side, most of the pre-schooler tv that we watch seems to be reasonably educational, so I'm trying not to stress too much that he seems to be absorbing it word by word.

You let her watch tv twice a week and are concerned that makes you a bad parent?

I don't have a tv, I stream carefully selected cartoons from the net for dd.

There are some truly brilliant kids programmes now, there is the possibility for them to learn so much from some programmes.

We watch mr tumble together and are both learning sign language (this followed on nicely from baby sign) we also watch Dora as I know that hearing Spanish spoken regularly now will help her to develop neural pathways that will make learning Spanish a doddle.

When she is older it will be nina and the neurons and mr blooms garden.

If I need 5 mins to do the dishes she can watch peppa or raaraa (because I can't stand them she only gets to watch them by herself which makes then less fun)

I used to be an utter hippy about 'screen time' but I have come to the conclusion that's its all part of a healthy balanced cultural diet.

"What happened?"

You became a normal parent. Don't sweat it.

I am considering putting ds' favourite Christmas present in the bin. It is a fucking annoying penguin that sings the most annoying song ever. I didn't buy it, I hold my lovely mother fully responsible

My DS traces his hand at that bit too. Simething about it really resonates with him. I think the opening sequence is just so charming and restful

I learnt the alphabet from Sesame Street, but said zee instead of zed!

I don't plonk DS in front of the TV, unlike DH, but DS has recently started signing stuff to us which he has picked up from Mr Tumble.

I only put on Cbeebies though as I think the advertisements on other channels are worse than anything!

DC will watch much more as they get older....TV isn't all bad and it is about moderation..

My Ds was so transfixed with the TV even when it was off ..he would lie on his Baby gym and stare at the TV even when turned off...So I bought baby brain and baby einstien..I considered at least he was learning something

CBeebies TV is actually great. ITNG is lovely, very restful.

TV isn't the devil... children need downtime too. There's a massive difference between "Siddinfront of that and shuddup!" while shoving a dummy in their mouth and a bit of downtime when you need a break, or they're tired, or you just need to distract them while you do something, or watching something nice together.

And plus as somebody said, they need their version of Sesame Street and whatever we watched to reminisce about at university!

My kids don't really do tv they have never really be interested we are a very active family and are all always out and about. However my son loves the cbeebies website do we bought him a tablet for Xmas and I felt like a terrible parent but he has prob used it for about 20mins a day and not at all some days since Xmas. Due to the terrible weather today he has watched something special on tv and is now watching yesterday's gigglebiz on the tablet we went out for an hours walk in the rain as I can't bear staying in and on a normal bank holiday we would have prob done a bike ride or beach walk! Used responsibly and properly tv or screen time isn't a problem, my kids have never watched a DVD not for want of trying though!!