TV for a 2 year old - Advice please

[Hikoridikori]

My DC is 2 years old and we try to minimise the time spent on TV.

On weekends we may watch some cocomelon songs for 30' and that's it.

A friend recently told me that her DS (also 2 years old) loves Moana! But how is this possible?

Can a 2 year old understand and stay concentrated to watch such a long movie?

What do your 2 year old kids watch on TV and for how long do you let them watch TV?

I don't know what is best and whether my DC should be more into these things...

At the moment it's all about ba ba black sheep and row row your boat in our home and that's it!

We often have the tv on in the background while dd plays with her toys and she'll occasionally stop and watch a certain CBeebies program if it catches her eye.
She likes to watch Bluey, Bing, Paw Patrol, and love monster is a new favourite. Some days she'll watch 1 episode of a program and then go off to do something else, some days she asks to watch additional episodes.

She's also watched frozen, moana, toy story and encanto but in 30 min chunks because she takes herself off to play so we stop the film.

We're fairly relaxed about screen time when it comes to tv and just make sure it balances out with her independent play or playing with DH or me

My 2.5 year old loves moana. She doesn't stay engaged for the whole film constantly but she enjoys it and knows the characters.

My 3.5 year old still has very little interest in movies and trust me I’d bloody love it if he did at times.

When he was 2 he was all about Octonauts or Tractor Ted. I find most CBeebies shows fairly inoffensive and some are quite educational so I tend to stick to those for him and my 1yo. They both really enjoy Kiri and Lou at the moment and it’s actually a decent watch. I’m a big Bluey fan too!

We don’t do loads of screen time but do tend to have 30mins ish of an afternoon to unwind before dinner. And occasionally I’ll pop something on for 5 mins here of there if there’s something I need to get done and can’t engage them in anything else!

Weirdly I had almost the same conversation about Moana, someone at a child’s birthday party told me her 18 month old knows all the songs and sings them word for word

I think different children just have different appetites and concentration levels. Some can happily sit through hours of tv and others will run around doing stuff

On his second birthday we took ds to see the film Lion King. So engrossed he didn't even eat his popcorn! Or ask for a wee!
At 7 he loves the cinema and watching films at home. A good skill to learn ime!!

Mine would watch a full film at 2 years old. We actively encouraged first because we took a few long haul flights and then the pandemic meant we were both working with her at home. She definitely didn’t understand all of it, she was 4 before she twigged the parents die in frozen for instance, but she did get the jist and really liked the songs. She also loved Dora the Explorer and Paw Patrol at that age.

Special circumstances like flights and pandemics aside, during the week I usually allow one episode which is like half an hour morning and evening as/when I want some time to get stuff done. On raining weekends at home we’ll often do a film in the afternoon.

Up to you what you want to do though!

Thanks all.

How do we watch Cbeebies? Is it just the TV channel 202?

And all these programs that many of you mentioned above like the Bluey, Bing, Paw Patrol, love monster, Octonauts,Tractor Ted and Dora the Explorer available on Cbeebies?

I guess I need to know in advance the Cbeebies program and I can't choose what I want to see when I want to see it?

Sorry about the questions that will probably sound stupid to you but I am not into the TV thing and it's all new to me!

On a separate question, do you think that cocomelon songs are babyish for a 2 year old or appropriate for its age?

@ShirleyPhallus really?! Mine is still on single words...

If you have access to the bbc iPlayer, CBeebies programs are available on there, on demand and you can download them.

Bluey is a fairly new cartoon to CBeebies, but it's such a lovely watch. DH and I were engrossed in an episode yesterday while dd played happily with her toys!

Something about Moana! It's the first film DD ever watched almost all the way when she was 2 and she loves it and asks for it quite often. I don't mind as I love it too

[quote Hikoridikori]@ShirleyPhallus really?! Mine is still on single words... [/quote]
Yes!! You haven’t met these competitive parents whose offspring can do quite unbelievable things yet then

Thanks @MsSquiz ! I will try it tonight. I have seen the "bbc iplayer" on our TV settings and I will explore it and try find and download the programs you mention.

Also, how can we watch movies like moana, frozen etc.? Are they available online somehow on TV again?

I have never seen moana by the way...

I am the lion king and 101 dalmatians generation and back then we had videocassettes

CBeebies is a TV channel aimed at younger children.

Paw Patrol is on Nickelodeon or Nick Junior (the TV channels) and also on Netflix. Octonauts is on Netflix. Dora is an old Nickelodeon show, it’s on sky on demand but I’m unsure if they still air it on TV. DD learned quite a lot of Spanish words from it though!

I sometimes put Cocomelon on for the 1YO and my 4YO will actually watch it. So no I don’t think it’s babyish for a 2YO. If they like it and you get a bit of a break then there’s no issue.

How old a two year old? Like DD couldn't watched a film on her 2nd birthday but she could at 2 and a half. You can watch cbeebies on iPlayer. Peppa pig and paw patrol are on Netflix/Amazon. Not sure about Dora as DD never watched it.

@ShirleyPhallus ohhh no... how terrible! I hope I will stay away of them forever, haha!

I wouldn't be able to stand such a behaviour to be honest... I bet they lack emotional intelligence

Moana, Frozen etc are all on Disney Plus. If you decide to subscribe you can also watch your old faves like 101 Dalmatian’s, and no VCR required
IDK that I would consider the subscription good value until they get a bit older though, unless there’s stuff you would watch on there.

@RandomQuest so many new words for me in your post!

I didn't know about the Nickelodeon or Nick Junior. I know netflix though

I will have a look what is in there and at bbc i player.

I was hoping that I could find everything in one place, but apparently it's not the case!

Sometimes I worry about how I will keep up with all the new technological things as my DC grows. I don't want to be an old generation mummy...

So, we have Disney Plus, Netflix, bbc i player.... OMG it starts getting overwhelming the TV thing!

@Krustykrabpizza this is our birthday month and will be 2 in a couple of weeks!

I would just watch CBBCs on the normal TV. That way the kids are exposed to different characters, letters, colours, numbers etc.

Dh and I are of a similar lion king, Aladdin era to you - but we enjoy movies together now, both love a marvel film so we have a Disney+ subscription, both our kids (6 and 22 months) love Disney cars, toy story and finding nemo. No they don’t sit and watch it in it’s entirety but it’ll be put on the tv and left to play

I would start in 1 place, for ease.

We have sky and dd will usually watch either CBeebies or nick jnr (paw patrol & peppa pig)

All CBeebies shows are available via the iPlayer, so handy to watch specific shows as and when, rather than just "seeing what is on"

Disney+ has full length Disney films available as well as some kids shows (I think Bluey is on there too)

Netflix also has shows aimed at toddlers (including paw patrol & cocomelon)

This might sound daft, but maybe have a look tonight once the little one is in bed. That way you can get to grips with the apps & shows without a little voice chiming in to "watch that one"

We've pretty much stuck to CBeebies content through iPlayer.

I've also kept DD's TV time fairly minimal but now that she's started school I find it useful wind down time for her to watch something for half an hour.

Re 2 year olds knowing Moana, I can absolutely believe it. DD has friends who were singing along to shows like this at that age.

Disney+ is also the home of Bluey in the UK. (I know CBeebies show it too, but Disney did it first).
CBeebies is a great Channel, highly recommended.

Maybe some exceptional 2 year olds will grasp the emotions and the full story line in a film like moana…but for the vast majority it’s the bright pictures, fun characters and catchy songs that keep them entertained - they aren’t ‘watching a film’ as such. We haven’t tried a film with DS and don’t intend to for a little while - he’s a demanding little sod spirited wee angel and the more TV he is exposed to the more he asks for it and I’m too lazy to set proper limits so we generally don’t have it on here at all. For journeys on the train/in the car to his grandparents we download episodes of Mr Tumble on the iPlayer app which he does seem to like.