I have three children, nearly 8, 5 & 4. They all love to watch tv and we happily let them watch age appropriate tv most days, but we limit it. So for example they might watch for 45 mins/hour after school, but then we tell them to turn it off. Never have it on before school, but at the weekend they watch a fair bit while we have a lie-in .
So, yesterday was the first day in the hols and I had a lot of work to do they ended up watching far more tv than I would ordinarily let them. When dh came home I told him this (out of guilt). It led to a chat about tv/computers/wii and we have decided to let them watch as much as they like for a while to see if they'll eventually get bored with it. I suggested a couple of days, but dh says it's not long enough and try a week.
So today they have had the tv on a lot, but did switch it off for a while during which time dd's had a bath together and ds went on cbeebies website. Not great really. DD1 got bored and played in her room a fair bit, but dd2 and ds1 watched a lot.
I am hoping that tomorrow, which is forecast to be sunny here will be different. I haven't told the dc's what we are doing they still ask to watch, but have been told yes everytime.
I hope that they will get bored with it and learn to ration themselves, if not it's not going to kill them for a week and we'll go back to 'normal.