How do I encourage my child to watch better television?

[PeachesMcLean]

Short of getting rid of sky altogether....? Or confiscating the zapper? He's 5 and the other kids at the childminder's have shown him Cartoon Network and Boomerang, so it's back-to-back Scooby Doo and Tom & Jerry, or worse - Ed, Edd and Eddie / Billy and Mandy etc.
I often suggest that we sit down and watch something else together (he's not buying that...) Yesterday I tried suggesting that we watch something a bit more "clever", (thinking "more appropriate") because "you don't learn much from these programmes"
He says "I do!"
I say "Why, what do you learn from Tom & Jerry"
He says "Mummy! I LEARN how to LAUGH, don't I!!!!"

I couldn't argue with that. Seriously though, we do limit how long he watches telly for, but he won't entertain any other channels, and he must get bored, because before long he starts on the interactive games...
Feel I need some MN frankness!

I know its crappy but maybe slightly more stretching for the mind
dd1 loves brainiac:science abuse and she has asked lots of questions about how things work since she watched it

Truthfully? My son is 5 and I just tell him no. He is not allowed to watch the channels you just mentioned. We have sky and there are channels he can choose from: cbeebies, nickjr, disney etc. Or he can watch a dvd. If you really don't want him watching it, you have to put your foot down.

We had the same problem a few years ago and we simply password-protected the channels we didn't want him to watch and said that we hadn't paid for those ones!

Now we have SkyPlus, and we 'record' all the programmes we think are 'appropriate' and that we'd like them to watch (e.g. Blue Peter) along with a few of their favourites, and then we give them the Sky Planner menu to choose from. Seems to be working....

I agree that you simply have to say no, he can't watch those programmes, or maybe only at the weekend or only every other day or something.

You really want frankness?

Telly isn't supposed to educate, it is supposed to entertain. It's not supposed to teach him valuable lessons, that's what you are for.

He has a very valid point that it is teaching him to laugh. Is that not a skill worth fostering, a sense of humour? Why does everything in a little boy's life have to be worthy aand wholegrain? An ability to laugh is as important as the (again frankly) dull messages preached on the worthier channels.

Message withdrawn

What, say no???!!! Crikey....
I did think of password protecting the channels - think I need to sit DH down and have a chat about this because I think he's part of the problem. Don't know if he'd go for that. DS now has a complete set of Star Wars films - and zaps through them to find "the good bits" - thanks to DH, so I'm stuggling with the alternative of a DVD.
OK, I've posted the wrong thread. How do I convince my husband that DS should be watching more appropriate TV (DH grew up in a house with the telly on all the time...) ?

Colditz!!! I love your frankness - I think that's what I was after!
Pruni - you got rid of the telly???? admiration emoticon!
Confused.

Message withdrawn

lol - I agree with colditz.

I worry less about the glazed state - I think I was probably the same with the Food channels late in the evening, until we got a computer and now it's MN instead.... It was DS's later comment that thanks to T&J, he's now learnt how to trap a mouse, a real live one... He got a bit weird at that stage.

With Acme dynomite, a dog called Butch and a frying pan, presumably.

the only way is to limit the amount of telly he watches. I had endless cartoons over the summer, when they were learning german, but am determined cartoons will not be seen in our house this year.
I am away from home at the moment, my ex is there, and his regime is 1 hour of telly a day, and he had them lined up in front of a Nigel Kennedy dvd when I phoned, lol. They are going to be so well trained when I get them back.

We ditched Sky for this very reason. It is 98% shite. The only thing we miss is Discovery Kids and not everything on there is great. Watch out for Pop and TinyPop though - you can still get those without Sky and Tinypop has a worrying number of flavourless mindless vaguely cutesy pap cartoons.

LOL Frank!
(I swore I'd never type LOL here.... seems too appropriate though)
Nigel Kennedy???? Violin skills would be fine but aren't you worried about the cod cockney accent and the haircut? I'm going straight back to the Acme dynamite....