Am I depriving ds ?

[bensmum3]

Hi, I've just read the whats your toddlers favourite video message, and am shocked at how many younger children have favourite videos. ds is 19 months and although we have a couple of younger childrens videos he's never watched one, or the tv. We have the tv on for the news and the older 2 like to watch blue peter etc sometimes, but he never shows any interest, except to try and turn it off. Surely this can't be too unusual at his age ?

[Casmie]

I agree aloha.

My 8 month old sees far too much TV for his age really, I would have been shocked if I was still on my first child to think that an 8 month old had more than half an hour every now and then! But ds1 is almost 4, has already had his life fairly disrupted with the newcomer, comes home from nursery exhausted and needs to veg and unwind (and mummy needs to get cooking done in safety!) Hence both get far more TV than is "recommended".

Sometimes I do feel horribly horribly guilty about this. I do try and fit in a wide range of activities in short bursts when we're not all knackered, but I'm sure I get the balance wrong more often than not. I think by and large, though, we do okay - both dses are absolutely gorgeous and don't seem to be suffering horrendously and ... gasp ds1 actually seems to have learnt a fair amount from the TV!

Yes, ds1 still adores books, is very verbal, loves trains and building stuff. Is independant in play yet shares well with his brother and with his friends in nursery. Is extremely active, loves climbing, running, playing on his trike...

For the last week, we've all had flu and been really very ill with it, so the TV has been on almost constantly - it's the only way we could survive. A healthy amount of guilt has set in so I shall be striving to keep the box off outside our set "allowed" times (during meal preparation time) again.

[lowcalCOD]

I ifnd mine watch loads more int he winter

[Moomina]

Yep, mine too - lots more in the winter. I do feel a bit guilty - ds is 19 months and does probably watch quite a lot of tv some days. Or, at least, the tv is on quite a lot of the time when he is in the same room.

But, as aloha says, tv and books or any other activity are not mutually exclusive. A child is not deprived by not watching tv nor, imo, are they deprived of quality playtime, reading time, rolling-around-on-the-floor-and-giggling time if they do watch more than 20 mins a day. And most of the time he's drowning out the tv with his flippin' Leap Pad anyhow...

One thing I don't do is plonk him in front of the tv so I can go off and do other things - if we're watching, we're watching together, talking about it, singing along, etc.

[Gobbledigook]

Well said Aloha. I was just going to post the merits of CBeebies myself - it's amazing the stuff my ds's (3.10 and 2) have learned from watching it!!

[lowcalCOD]

like camp dance moves?
lol

[Caligula]

God, I plonk.

That's why God invented TV. So that bad mothers could plonk kids in front of it and sneak off to have a look at Mumsnet!

I'm not expected to sit through a whole episode of the Tweenies myself am I? I don't ask them to sit through Newsnight, so I don't see why I should do CBeebies (although I do make an exception for 64 Zoo Lane and Wildlife, and we have many quality moments of family life watching the Simpsons together!)

And yes, in Summer they hardly watch it at all.

[Gobbledigook]

LOL Coddy! Actually, I'm pleased to say that my ds can't really stand Boogie Beebies although he does copy big Cook's ridiculous moves in the washing up song .

Still at least he knows all about poo and sewage courtesy of 'Come Outside'

Yep, summer they barely watch the tele at all but I don't know how I'd survive without it in the winter!

[Moomina]

Caligula - maybe I should have clarified that ds only gets to watch the shows I can stomach - which definitely means no Tweenies!

[Casmie]

LOL Caligula - my excuse is that the computer is in the same room as the TV - I'm multitasking (AND I'm in the middle of cooking a roast chicken - more fool me as I've just started feeling at death's door again... sigh )

[bensmum3]

aloha, you are wrong, it was a genuine question , after reading the favourite video thread, I can't remember how much the older 2 watched at this age,but we are very restricted now in when we can actually have the tv on by our power supply , which is only on 8am-11am and 5pm -12mn, (we have wind power, but its broken at the moment).Even an ec friendly life's not always perfect !As ds shows no interest when it is on,and I've never encouraged him, I was shocked that others were saying their very young ones had favourites, not criticising them for actually watching,the something special sounds like a big hit, is it on ordinary tv ?