Movies at nursery? Aibu?

[Lavender14]

So ds (2 coming 3) nursery is on the whole great and they do a lot with the kids and he's learnt and developed a lot since starting there. They watch TV at the end of some days while waiting on parents to collect for about 30 minutes - no big deal with that. However once a week they watch a movie for a hour or two. I've been asked to give consent for pg movies to be shown.

Obviously some pg movies are fine for younger kids but I feel like a blanket permission is tricky because they aren't all going to be? What do others think? I'm not anti-tv and ds will watch things but I try to pick stuff that's not too overstimulating /educational and I keep an eye on how long he's been watching.

I wouldn’t be OK with it, but I know I’m in the minority.

Firstly it’s a long time to be passively watching a screen.

Secondly I think it’s different in a nursery if school environment to at home. At home they can just switch it off or wonder off and do something else. At nursery or school there is pressure to keep watching it.

No I don’t think so. There are plenty of U 6+ ones on Disney that my child of the same age finds a bit scary (little mermaid for instance) and prefers to watch when sitting with us. Our nursery doesn’t do movies. They can just play in an unstructured way when not doing activities.

I use tv when I need her to sit for a while, for instance when feeding baby or when I’m trying to do something for work. This doesn’t apply at nursery.

It would be a hard no from me. We kept PG movies to 7 onwards as they are intended.

I sent my DC to a fully outdoor nursery so screens were simply not an option.

No, I wouldn't expect that at a nursery. I'd expect them to be playing or being read to. Stick them in front of a screen? Sounds like a downtime opportunity for the staff instead or standing about vaping outside.

This would be a no for me but so would this nursery - I don’t think any screen time is necessary at nursery.

I wouldn't be happy with this, and I don't think the rating of the film is your biggest issue here. It's one thing to watch the occassional film at home, but you're paying nursery prices for your 2 year old to spend 1 - 2 hours watching a film. Regardless of whether it's a U or a PG, that's a lot of screen time, and i'm surprised there haven't been complaints.

It would be an odd choice of an activity as a one off, but you say this is happening every week, which is absolutely ridiculous. In my experience, even school aged children fidget, chat and get up for several toilet visits during a film. So I would question why a nursery feels a 1-2 hour film is a suitable activity for such young children.

It's completely at odds with the care and environment that a nursery should be providing. Young children should be busy exploring, playing and interacting with the world around them. Not sat infront of a screen for hours at a time. Not only will a lot of the films be unsuitable or frightening for younger children, I would also worry about the staffing ratios. This sounds like an excuse to cut down on the number of staff supervising the children.

I agree. I think there is enough for kids to be doing that doesn't involve screens. And if it is an occasional thing, U rated films surely much better. My kids all find some PG stuff scary at the age of 8 and 6, let alone the 2 year old!

Yeah I thought it was a lot to do it every week, his previous nursery used it the odd time but it was an episode of Peppa while they cleaned quickly after dinner rather than an activity in itself. I also feel like the blanket permission takes away my ability to call it on the movie as well, as obviously some will be more confusing or upsetting than others. Ds does love screen time and he'd happily sit through a movie with me but it would be the exception rather than a regular thing in our house and I feel like as a lone parent I now can't really on TV to babysit when I really need it because I'm conscious of how much he's having on a Friday. My guess is is allows staff to maybe make their plans for the following week and do a bit of prep. But then I feel like if I decline the permission I don't know if that means ds will still end up in the room around it or if it means he'll need to go to another room while it's on which I don't really want either since he's only just moved into this room and is still settling and getting used to it.

So your response has to be something like “I do not want him to have extended periods watching movies. I control screen time at home and 2 hours on a Friday would exceed govt recommendations. I would like to be reassured about the activities he will be offered instead of screen time”. Don’t worry without asking.

So I've just double checked and they have said that if we don't give consent we need to collect our children before the movie starts. They won't accommodate them in another room or in the setting. Which I obviously can't do because of my working hours. So basically there's no choice but to consent.

A PG movie once a week for 2 year olds is pretty wild for a nursery!

I'd accept a bit of Cbeebies at the end of the day or maybe one of those Julia Donaldson adaptations for a termly treat but not Moana every week 😂

I’m not in UK so no idea how all placements and funding works, but wow are you paying for this? Can you change their nursery? I would just be so angry about that.

That’s really weird! What are all the staff doing while all
the children are watching this film? Are they using it for training time or something?

Fuck me. If I was paying £95 per day for them to watch TV I’d have something to say about it!

I wouldn’t be using a nursery that uses screen time at all to be honest, there’s no need for them to be watching TV there and I’m quite surprised this is a “thing” for a nursery. We viewed quite a few nurseries before settling on ours and none of them use any screen time.

I’m really surprised at this , I would be tempted to look into the national standards/ government regulations

from a quick google, both nhs guidelines and who say less then 1 hour a day for under twos .

I would be very tempted to message back saying that you want to clarify with ofsted the amount of hours that the children are allowed to be mindless viewing before giving any consent, as you are quite concerned.

I would imagine that it quickly changes .

really though you need to look for a different setting. This one doesn’t align with your needs .

With the cost of childcare as it is I would not be happy with them watching TV at all. They can do that at home. If they absolutely have to they should watch something like number blocks or story bots. PG stands for parental guidance, not nursery school guidance. Unless they are asking you your permission and telling you what the film is it would be a hard no from me!

I'd find any screen time at nursery unacceptable. They have ratios that we pay for, there is no reason they should need this to be the only way to facilitate tasks. I'd be annoyed that my money is being spent on entertaining them this way. I'm not screen free at home but that is different. At the least, I'd be highlighting the recommendations on screen limits and pointing out that this is pushing this and making assumptions about what parents are happy with. To be honest I'd be reconsidering the setting.

I'm extremely loathe to move him because he does seem to really like it and there are so few nurseries in our area they're in high demand, he's been on the waiting list for another (initially as a backup incase we weren't happy with this one) for a year now. And this one runs a pre school which he got a pre-pre place on this year which has been fantastic in terms of the work he's been doing with them during the mornings in the week and means I get those hours funded. If I move him then I lose those funded hours which as a lone parent has made a massive difference as my childcare bill is the same as a small mortgage even after UC contributions.

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/rating/PG

Based on what the film people saying... I would only give permission for U films.

They are very young for PG movies! Why on earth are they showing them? It sounds incredibly lazy considering how many U films and tv shows there are. Why a whole movie? every week? That’s not on.
PG is roughly for 8 years and older.

Why on earth are they putting a movie on?

We put the TV on in the nursery I used to work at because we had to clean the room before we could leave. Vacuum and mop. We got paid until 6pm and some children weren't picked up til then.

So TV on whilst one member of staff cleaned and the other did handover to parents. Some of the kids were knackered after being in nursery since 7.30am so it was nice for them to have a bit of telly at the end of the day.

No staff were vaping - as suggested by the condescending twat upthread.

I can understand why some screen time might be useful in the week and I've done early years work in the past so I know how demanding that schedule can be and trying to get the time to plan etc, but it still seems unreasonable to me that parents are effectively being strong armed into consenting to their child watching longer movies with a wider range of themes etc that may be beyond their years every week. To my mind there are so many shorter, low stimulation u rated shows or movies to pick from.

I’m really surprised they’re showing PG movies at nursery. When my kids were at nursery they only showed U films.