My 4-year-old broke 4 TVs in one month... What should I do?

[LunaDream0]

Hi all,

I'm feeling a bit frustrated and overwhelmed at the moment, and I hope someone can offer some advice or support. My 4-year-old son has somehow managed to break four TVs in the last month! I’m not even sure how it’s happening, but each time I turn around, there’s a new screen crack or malfunction. It’s honestly starting to feel like we’re living in a nightmare!

I know kids can be rough on things, but I’ve never had this happen before, and it’s really making me question if I need to be doing something differently. Should I be more proactive in teaching him how to treat electronics? Or maybe I need to find a way to limit his access to the TV altogether?

Has anyone else dealt with something similar? How do you handle a situation like this without completely losing your mind?

Any tips or reassuring words would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

One is an accident, four is bad supervision and parenting.

The oddest thing is you have ordered and bought and had delivered four TVs in a month. That has cost you hundreds of £s.

Why would you do that without sorting out your son by supervising him or setting up the tv somewhere else or having rules you enforce?

So, he clearly can't be trusted around expensive and fragile things without supervision, so you need to prevent him being around those things without supervision. I'd get a projector instead, and start working on improving his behaviour and your control of his activities - one of those happening could be a "well, kids make mistakes" (not the deliberate destruction, but the others) but in combination it suggests he needs to learn how to play appropriately for a situation and how to regulate his emotions better. For example, imaginative active play is great... in the garden or the park, not the living room. Messy, creative play is great... in a room where it won't destroy expensive things. And deliberate destruction of things is never acceptable.

Beep boop boop boop.

So we've gone from "I’m not even sure how it’s happening, but each time I turn around, there’s a new screen crack or malfunction" to 4 very detailed and specific incidents. Amazing.

Ditto

You saved me writing it @CucumberBagel 😂😂

Tbf she's had 24 hours to come up with the ways..

The closest my children ever got to "destroying" a TV was by chewing/drooling on the remote control. Both of them. Lethal for the remote control, feasable for my budget.

Screen Perspex cover !!!

These aren't really just accidents are they. The first was a consequence of a tantrum. The consequence of chucking stuff around and breaking the tv should have been no more tv until he has earned the right to have one again.

It was 3 in our house! Due to being very disregulated or over zealous and yes I was there inches away each time. Was between the ages of 2 to 5 so a longer time span.

Bring back the old tvs, they were indestructible. All it takes is a slap on ot to start disrupting the screen.

Advice... try to predict and stay close by, put on wall, turn it off! X

Any option to attach it to the wall? Then some of the incidences would be less likely to happen again. I think sometimes they’re so fast it’s really hard to stop them.

Same here!! And with my son who has ADHD and Autism. Not one TV broken between us.

Gosh this sounds so like my son! First time he threw a tiny toy in anger and it cracked the screen, the second time he was overly enthusiastic with a room spray and it got into the motherboard. Two ruined TVs later and we now have a shitty little thing that, Sod’s Law, seems to be the most robust piece of kit ever! I do think some children are a bit more accident prone and whilst I’m not condoning any child throwing toys in anger, sometimes this stuff happens.
I’ve no advice though, sorry 😂 just solidarity

Simples
Wall mounted or even better get a TV cabinet with doors
Move the tv to a tv room wirh no child access

You may find this unnatural but I don't watch TV. So this is irrelevant, I read books, exchange messages with people, watch or join in on subjects that interest me online - like this, though I'm not a mum.

Should I be more proactive in teaching him how to treat electronics?
You think??

put it on the wall on a bracket!!

also tel him off - hes old enough to understand!

Can’t decide which of you needs more guidance and control.

Geez calm down, I was just offering a theory of why he might be doing it 🙄

An unlikely one. Other posters have been saying the OP doesn't need a TV or her child shouldn't be watching TV.

I think the OP is probably fictional anyway so it hardly matters.

So this has happened to me ONCE. My DC decided to smash the screen in order to try and get inside his favourite show with his favourite characters. He's 3 and currently in debt until he starts to work and is able to repay, although he doesn't know it yet!

I think you can certainly blame a 4 year old for breaking a TV!! They are bit babies or toddlers! Op do you realise TVs have high voltage capacitors which can discharge extremely high voltages, even when the TV is switched off?