Has anybody found out how much tv is ok for 3 and 4 year olds to watch?

[MilaMae]

I don't mean to start a for and against tv thread. I love great kid's tv, there is so much good stuff out there I don't want mine to miss out and to be frank with 3 under 5 I'd go insane without it anyway. Obviously that's just my humble opinion.

However I'm a little worried mine watch too much. They only watch Cbeebies 1/2 hour before pre-school (so I can actually get out with 3 clothed and fed kids)then 1 hour after they return and have had lunch then another 1/2 hour during the witching making tea hour. I've started to realise though, some days they watch over 2 hours .

Can't find anything anywhere that says what I should be aiming for, no idea how much their friends watch. Anybody know or how much do you let your kids watch?

Just remembered too, in Scandinavia kids watch tons of tv - it's how most of them learn english - from the subtitles (spoken english to finnish subtities etc)

The controversy about telly is a bit overblown I think. As long as your sensible and you actually interact with your child and not leave them with no other stimulation - which would obvioulsy be tantomount to neglect.

We are currently without tv which explains why I am on MN so frequently, but I couldn't survive the pre-dinner strop-time with ds if I couldn't sedate him with an "age appropriate " dvd! How would I ever get the dinner prepared at ds's tetchiest time of the day?

No, anyone who can actually live by the guidelines 100% of the time has my awe (and jealousy).

In our household it is somewhat different. DS is nearly 7 and hardly watches anything at all during the week. His favourite programme is Match of the Day , so we record this on a Saturday night and as soon as he gets up on a Sunday morning he comes and asks if he can watch it. So I think that is about 1.5 hours. He really does not watch much other than that. Although last Saturday I let him watch Mansfield against Middlesbrough and Wigan against Chelsea because it is not often that there are live football matches on terrestial TV when DS is awake and I was hungover. So that was about 4 hours of TV. Then on Sunday he watched MOTD and half of the Man U game (at SILs because they have Sky) So another 1.5 hours. But nothing since and that is a lot for him.

DD has only just discovered TV but only likes certain programmes - Noddy, Roary the racing car , and Charlie and Lola. She likes Dora but the episodes are a bit long for her. But she is 3 1/2 and until recently was the ultimate non-watching child.

And LOL at rubberduck and the reading under the covers. I have a feeling DS might be heading that way. I had a wall light and covered it with my sleep cardigan to dim it so my parents wouldn't see under the door, which worked well until the cardigan started smouldering.

I have to say that you can cook with a grumpy child. DD would not watch TV unless I was in the room with her, so she has spent literally hours stood on a kitchen chair next to me while I cook. And yes, it is a pain that the chair blocks half my cupboards but I manage.

what you need is this

Anybody who lives by the guidelines has my awe and admiration too. An hour is my aim but to be honest it does creep up to 2 hours or slightly more. It's really interesting seeing what others do. Encouraging to see others have similar viewing times and also interesting to see that some do manage less.

With 4 year old twins, a 3 year old and a tiny house I have to say I can't manage without it totally. Also I'm far more shouty when up against getting out on time, getting a meal made and I'm having one of my lets do this without TV attempts.

Sometimes I just need them all out of being under my feet and quiet- Something Special, Nina & the Neurons etc really help and are so fantastic they fit the bill brilliantly.

If I had a huge farmhouse kitchen (sigh), just 1 child at home, was a different type of person(ie more chilled and laid back) maybe I could go cold turkey and cope with getting things done sans TV but as I'm not and living very much in the real world I'm afraid it's here to stay.

I'm starting to realise I'm only human and if something helps me to get things done and be less stressed and shouty as a result it can't be the evil it's made out to be. Obviously being aware of not overdoing it, filling their days with plenty of varied activities and watching good quality shows are important things to remember and things I try to do, so will try not to feel soooooo guilty about it.

I think a parent should use their own judgement to decide what amount of TV is right for your child, and not listen to so called experts. Health problems that are associated to too much TV are always part of a bigger picture, and preventing a child from watching more than the recommended amount, wont solve anything.

Personally my three year old watches TV 1 hour after breakfast and at least 1 hour while I'm cooking the dinner.

I cook from scratch and although my son helps me to make lunch and enjoys baking, I wouldn't dream of having him in the kitchin while making dinner, as its boring, dangerous and would take twice as long.

PS. On rainy days, when i've left ds at home with his dad, they will pretty much watch sport all day on t.v.

Interestingly... I've been searching for Sigman A on pubmed. He has contributed to no papers that are on there.

That could mean one of three things:

1. That he's listed under another name and I'm not searching correctly (highly possible)
2. That his scientific paper is not listed on pubmed.
3. That he has done NO randomized controlled trials that have been properly peer reviewed, meaning that I am far more reluctant to believe his "recommendations" have any basis in fact.

Personally, given that he's the psychologist who stated that excessive TV viewing could cause autism, I'd be carrying a very large pinch of salt around with me if I ever met him...

On pubmed there are quite a few papers listed regarding television viewing and young children. You can only see the abstract on there, so you can't fully assess how the research was done or how its been received in the community, but it's a good starting point.

From a quick scan down, most seem to be looking into possible link between obesity or diabetes and television viewings. That feels logical to me - after all if you're sat in front of the TV all day and excluding other activities, then you're not being very active.

There's a big chunk looking at the effects of violent TV (and video game) viewing on children. I.e. lack of age appropriate viewing, by the sound of it.

There are a few studies looking at attention spans of children, particularly once they reach teenagers, correlated to how much TV they viewed as youngsters. That sounds interesting and I'd like to look more into that study - does anyone know if it's published in full anywhere?

Anyway, the point of this very long winded post is to point out that just because something is a "study" does not mean it's good science. We could call this random chat here on mumsnet a "study" and publish our "results" - it would be fairly meaningless to all concerned. For it to be good science it needs to be a proper randomized trial, with a decently large set of data (i.e. lots of test subjects if you want the results to apply across the whole population, not just a handful) and properly peer reviewed so other scientists can put their hand up and say "oi, you cocked up your method totally there..."

Sorry, should say Sigman A has contributed to no papers on this topic on there. There are 3 papers which come up on a search for Sigman A, none of them television related.

Good posts by Rubberduck.

That's very interesting RubberDuck.

bozza I am sure that some people can cook with a grumpy child, but I have a grumpy, faintly hyperactive child who literally will NOT sit still if he is awake, unless I am reading to him (which is tricky if you are cooking) or if I am physically restraining him. I refer to the hour between 5 and 6 as "the witching hour" because no matter what we have done all day, outdoor exploration, arts and crafts,imaginative play, nursery school activities, music and dancing, etc etc, ds is impossible until he has eaten (when he calms back down again. He watches a dvd for that hour every night because he will settle down at his little table and draw pictures quite happily with a favourite story playing in the background. I make no apologies for it. Different kids (like adults) have very different temperaments and you have to trust your own judgement about alot of these things.

Incidentally, I am worried that ds is going to take up extreme sports as he gets older because he has always been a very physical child and appears to have no fear - he is often the child attempting to climb highest up the climbing frame in our local park despite being the youngest if I turn my back for a second... my heart is usually in my throat because I suffer from an acute fear of heights myself.

brilliant post rubberduck

have read aric S, the book is bascially all opinion, no science. He also cites studies quite selectively.

Another book which really really annoys me is "Set Free Childhood". Though, to be fair, references to the "reptilian brain" aside (this is the part of the brain we use when watching the tv, IIRC ), he doesn't really bother with science in his books, beyond the usual "scientists have found" .

The fact of it is that there is little actual evidence that a reasonable amount of tv is harmful OR beneficial. We also don't know how much is reasonable. We know very little, mainly because most research is confounded by other factors such as social class, parental education, etc.

Good point Fillyjonk.

The only thing that I would say is that many people of my generation (in their 30s now) grew up watching some television every day from pre-school age at least. I don't know whether I am "damaged" by it, but it did not limit my ability to perform a multitude of physical and cognitive skills (with varying degrees of success, of course) throughout my childhood and adulthood. Providing children are provided with many different stimuli as they grow, and tv is not their only hobby - so watching suitable tv in moderation - I am not really worried about what the "experts" say.

Yes that is interesting Rubberduck.

yes and you see I didn't watch it, we didn't have a tv

I don't much watch tv nowadays, but my brother LOVES it . One of his life's most proudest acheivements is when he watched tv for 24 hours solid