7yo watching cartoons that I'm not sure I approve of.

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

Not sure if I'm being an old fart or not. DD is only just 7 and until last week still watched cebeebies. She doesn't watch more than an hour a day (often less), but I thought that Auntie Mable, etc were all quite nice, even kidding myself that some of them were a bit educational, stimulating,etc.

Anyway she's now discovered Totally Ninja channel . She was watching Mutant Ninja Turtles the other day and I was a bit shocked. Horrible monsters and lots of shooting each other with laser guns. She loves it.

Do I put my foot down and say no, or accept she's growing up?

Our take on this is simple- if we don't approve, they don't watch. At least, not until they are nearly grown-up. Actually, I can see TV programmes falling into two parts:

the ones we might approve of per se, but think they are too young for. Like The Lord of the Rings- a 5yo might be too young, but have no objections to a 10yo watching.

the ones we are never going to approve of (because of mindless violence, shameless commercialism, cynical attitude towards sex, no artistic/literary merit). With these, our attitude is that we don't have to host those in our home. Ever.

In our puritanical household, it is quite possible that the Mutant Ninja turtles would fall into the second category. Yes, they would!

What I would do is to encourage trips to the library where you can borrow good quality videos or dvds. This way, you have more control over what she is watching, and a joint family film evening can become a very enjoyable occasion.

Stripey, if you don't like what she's watching, then put your foot down.

As her tastes seem to be changing away from cbeebies, how about letting her have a look at the Discovery Channel, or listening to the radio instead.

Radio 7 have some fab programmes for children.

We spent a holiday with some friends who let their children watch Cartoon Network for hours on end - we all ended up with massive headaches!

Totally Ninja channel? is it actually called that? .

It's really difficult isn't it? My ds is only 5 and hasn't yet been exposed to anything to horrendous, but a friend's dd is in y2 and has been bullied because she still watches lazy town. It's so sad that they reach an age where what they do/don't watch affects how they are perceived by their peers.

Ah its actually Jetix channel - they were having a Totally Ninja weekend or something. Have just found out via Google.

Think I will have to tell her its banned. Actually I think I may get rid of the Cable Tv ANd she can just have freeview

Does her behaviour change after watching it? My boy (7) loves Jetix too and will sneakily put it on at any opportunity (yes its shite and I would rather he watch Tom and Jerry pummelling the crap out of each other really) . His behaviour doesn't change but my neighbours boy goes bananas copying all the moves (his mum has banned him watching it).

We only have Freeview and they mostly watch CBBC. I think if you have the channels it is hard to put your foot down, so we have decided not to get them. The Simpsons is our big bugbear.

Just spoke to Virgin - if I downgrade the TV package I have to pay £10 a month more as we lose our discount. So I want to cancel the TV package but DH not happy.

So now I'm set for a lifetime of arguments with DD.

Her behaviour doesn't change. I must admit I used to watch He-man et al when I was her age and they were probably as bad?

I have put a bar on Jetix, CartoonNetwork and the like, as my lazy parenting allows DS(5) to go down and watch TV by himself for a while on weekend mornings while I sleep. He still watches rubbish (Disney channels, mainly, but also cITV sometimes) but it is not quite such mindless (or violent) rubbish. He knows I don't like these things and he knows why, but policing it beyond where I have would be (IMHO) counter-productive as it would make it even more attractive.

(by "putting a bar on" I mean using the parental controls to block the channels - DS now refers to them as "the PIN number channels" )

I didn't know you could block channels - can you do it with Virgin? (hopeful emotion)

I don't know, sorry - we have Sky - but I would imagine there must be some sort of parental controls on there somewhere.

You are going to have a lifetime of arguments with dd anyway- that's what parenting of growing children is like. And there will be times when they tell you all the children laugh at them because they are so uncool. Remember you don't hear what the other children tell their mums.

I think the only way to sanity is to hold onto what you feel comfortable with. And that's going to differ from parent to parent. But the more confident you sound, the easier they will accept it. And it's easier to sound confident when you really feel strongly about something.

IME children soon learn. I think mine have a good idea of what sort of stuff they might as well not bother to ask me for, becaus it's a complete waste of breath.

Whatever you do, don't model your parenting style on what they tell you that their peers perceive as cool: that way lies insanity- and built-in failure!

I for one can't stand Tracey Beaker, but can watch an episode of Jake and Josh!

Hi
we have / had a Jetix problem in our house. My ds 5.4 years was watching Jetix (Power Rangers ) at every tv oppurtunity.
His behaviour was becoming outragiously bad for months. so at the end of our tethers we banned it.
Behaviour became better most of the time.
He was allowed to watch one hour of Jetix after school today for a treat and within 45 minutes he had smacked his sister with a pirate ship mast .
So we have now banned it again as as far as we can tell it seems to influence his behaviour a great deal (he was hyped up until bed time today!).
His friends are allowed to watch it - he is not no arguments - but we watch Tom and Jerry with no trouble and the whole family love it (especially me

you have parental controls on ntl/virgin. It's the first option on settings. You block the channel and then you have to use your pin number to access the channel.

The only cartoon channel I allowed until they were about 8 and 10 was the Disney Channel

turn it off if you dont think its suitable