be honest - how much TV does your toddler watch?

[milkyman]

My ds is 18mth and sometimes its 1.5hrs overall on bad days! Usually postman pat dvd and cbeebies. Feel sooo guilty!

Until the last few weeks DS watched about 15-20 minutes of Peppa Pig a day, then morning sickness hit me and DS got ill with an ear infection and then we watched tv all day every day!

Now we're both better he's probably watching 1.5 hours a day at the most, an hour or so in the afternoon and half an hour in the evening. We do plenty of things together e.g. Playgroups, going to the park, going to the shops, gardening etc so I am refusing to feel any sort of guilt!

We were quite strict with TV time for DD1, tending to put it on first thing while I was getting ready for work, and then ITNG before bed, not much in between - tend to have radio on in the day rather than TV.

Then DD2 arrived , since when the Electronic Babysitter has been helping us out a huge amount (cbeebies - worth the licence fee alone IMHO)

We will start to return to the old routine next month, before DD1 starts nursery. But I don't feel remotely guilty anyway - DD1 still loves painting/reading/building/running around in the garden, and learns a lot from the programs she does watch.

15 minutes a morning on weekdays then out the house from 7.30- 5.30 at nursery every day so no tv.

When DS was about 18 months old I had undiagnosed PND and he watched loads.I mean hours every day. I was not physically, emotionally or mentally capable of doing much as it was the most appalling struggle just getting through each day.

Now he is nearly 4 and he watches a couple of hours- but now that it is sunny there will be less.

I refuse to feel guilty (oh okay, i do a little bit). But honestly I do what I have to do to get us both through each day in a reasonable shape. We do plenty of play inside and outside, and tend to watch shows he really loves- Jess' minibeast adventures' at the moment. Then we recreate it in the garden. I'm okay with that.

boobz talk about parallel lives, we have cut TV right down, half an hour after school or before bed.( not every day, only when they ask) One film at the weekend.

We cut it out completely for a month, then reintroduced it.

I am astonished how little they have missed it, not even asked for it. The weather helps obviously but their behaviour has improved dramatically.

I'm really pleased, as babies they got Nothing, as toddlers 20 mins a day. It just crept up a bit too much for my liking. (An hour plus a day -2 hours)

Off to google book.

3.4 yo - 15 minutes in bed with us in the morning, then 15 minutes downstairs whilst breakfast is being prepared, maybe 10 minutes before lunch, maybe a 10 or 20 minute show in the afternoon (especially if the weather is bad or he is really tired) and then 30 minutes of ITNG before bed. So somewhere between 1 to 1.5 hours a day. Once or twice a fortnight we will watch a family movie at the weekend, so another 1.5 hours that day.

I read this when dd was still a baby. As such, didn't really expose her to children's programmes until around 2yo

Don't get me wrong, the tv would be on and have my programmes on but rarely did she watch tv. I know for a fact if I had more than one child, this would be entirely different.

Dd now watches the odd Abney and Teal, or Peppa, but it'll be one or 2 episodes max per day. She's more happy getting her box of peppa toys out ans playing with them, than watching them.

I fully appreciate the need for tv with busy households etc, but I've never quite understood breakfast tv. Perhaps I'm a stickler for sitting at the table at breakfast and then all getting ready together upstairs. I don't see how I'd fit on tv in the morning when we're up and out by 8am

An early riser is the answer to how you would find the time in the mornings dippy. DS is much better at the moment and generally getting up at around 6am, but 5am was his standard for a long while. TV gave me time to become human and for the coffee to reach my blood.

A lot here aswel. If we are not out the house . Normally 2 outings aday if dry. But around that tv is on x

I don't understand people who's children get to 2 even and don't watch TV. 1) is your house silent?? And 2) how do you fill time??

I can answer the first question - I think some people are bothered by the sound of the TV like others are bothered by silence! The sound of the TV is like a mosquito in my ear. I detest it when DH turns on the TV and then leaves the room and forgets to turn it off.

Also, I think where the TV is matters a lot. In our house, the TV was not in the area where the children spent their time. However, we stayed in a temporary flat where the TV was viewable from the kitchen and play area, so it was on a few hours a day.

DS is now six and watched a lot as a toddler. He was always on the go so we spent a lot of time out of the house at the park or soft play, so when we were in the house I had tea to cook etc or needed a break from his constant chatter so the TV went on.

I work in a children's centre so should know better, but I did follow these guidelines, apart from the amount. www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0000/0809/parentstvguide.pdf

Only cbeebies or Fireman Sam recorded or DVDs, so no grown up TV. TV went off if it wasn't being watched.

He was an early talker so I wasn't too concerned about his talking. We had plenty of opportunity for two way conversations. As he got older he learnt a lot from the cbeebies preschool factual programmes like Nina and the Neurons, Andy's Wild Adventures, and semi educational cartoons like Octonauts.

He's also one of the top of his class for reading and maths, despite being summer born, so it's obviously not affected his learning.

My DS who is 19 months has absolutely no interest in tv whatsoever. I've tried sticking it on for him a few times as it would be really helpful to occassionally have 20 minutes to cook or whatever but nope. Doesn't have any interest yet. My eldest who is now 3 will watch as much as I let him but only really got interested when he hit 2.

We don't have a tv so of course the dc don't watch tv! DD is 7 and ds is 18 months. Ds has only ever seen tv at his grandparents. DD watches a film once a month, sometimes twice a month. I hate the sound of tv but we have radio on most of the time, I find that sound more soothing than annoying.

In terms of what we do, I don't really know ! Well DD is at school until 3pm and then the whole dinner, story bed thing starts at 5.30pmish so really there is very little time. I don't know how dd would fit tv in on a weekday. She comes home and plays, and has a playdate once a week. On weekends we tend to do crafts and go out. DD is also really big into playing.

Ds is at home with me all day. We go to a weekly toddler group but other than that we just potter around! I suppose he sleeps for two hours in the day from 10.30ish to 12.30ish and then is entertained by dd from 3pm on. This thread has made me notice we don't do much with ds!

At one point we did have tv but we got rid of it when dd was three. We found she whined about it, wanted more all the time and that her behaviour was worse when she had tv. She also seemed to forget how to entertain herself. It broke anyway and we made a decision not to replace it. Now it is not even questioned. DD only ever watches tv when she is at her grandparents. She watches cbeebies then.

DS is watching "Show Me, Show Me" right now and it is making me want to put my boot through the telly - ghastly.

I love Show me Show me! Show me show me your groovy moves...

It's terrible, they can't sing very well but insist on doing so and their enthusiasm for crap or very ordinary things (e.g. pineapples) is weird. I inadvertently watched the damn thing twice yesterday as it was repeated later on in the day, wanted to boot Ms Mouse up the arse. (middle class angst alert: the television had been switched off between the two showings!).

DS is 16 months. Zero TV. I never have had it on in the day and don't plan to start now. When he's older he can watch a bit in the evenings or when the weather is crap. However I live on a farm so there is no shortage of things he can do during the day.
I have the radio on during the day and he amuses himself for hours playing with random things he finds.

dd watches between half an hour to an hour a day I guess. All Mr Tumble. She knows and regularly uses about 50 makaton signs from it so I see it as incredibly positive. Plus it gives me time to cook or whatever.

DD is 15 months and watches probably half an hour in the morning, and maybe an hour in the evening before bed. On occasions it's shitloads more (she / we are poorly, nothing to do, crap weather etc etc). I'm not worried.