is cbeebies a "lifeline" for some mums?

[madremia09]

sometimes i dont know what id do without cbeebies........there isnt alot to do in my area and when ive exhausted all options ie gone swimming,walked to the shop,coloured in till everyones bored i think sod it,cbeebies............then i (GUILTILY) let it take over for probably longer than it should because its toooo easy!! god im expecting abuse for this one

is there anyone else who does this???? please make me feel a bit less guilty!!!!

I think I did this pretty much every day for about 2 years. And now they're all running round the garden playing a big involved game... not sitting inside with square eyes and no imagination. I rest my case.

We have it on now.
Ds's back was itching and I'm sure it was from the heat. We'd been playing 'tennis' even though we were in the shade and he only had his pants on.

I said we needed to cool down and offered some tv time.

Cbeebies is great if used corrctly.

Sometime the dc's watch 'too much', at the weekend in the mornings etc, while I lie in bed. But the rest of the time we're out and about, playing, doing all sorts.

It is a lifeline for me at 6 in the morning when I have had four hours sleep and Tikkabilla means I can snooze for an extra half an hour

Don't feel guilty I do it too sometimes it is all we have

Cbeebies is a marvellous thing. My dd1 has dropped her nap and by 3pm she is overtired, naggy and just won't sleep. I pop cbeebies on for 40 mins to an hour and have some quiet time for her. Otherwise she would be falling over herself, crying about something etc etc. She also sometimes has it on in the morning if she has woken up particularly early and one episode of 'timmy time' is the perfect timing for a breastfeed for dd2.

I spoke to my mum about it and she said that I used to watch loads of TV as a child - any old rubbish. She even saw me watching the test card for half an hour once . I've ended up with a decent IQ and an university education/good job etc etc

i've had it on constantly for the last few days, it's just too hot to go out.

Cbeebies is great for when DH is home and the DTDs aren't...

With a 2.2 yr old, and a bf-ing 10 week old, I'd be lost without it! Its on too much just now, but I figure anything to get through the next few months without losing the tattered remains of my sanity...

I only managed to solve the problem of how to have a shower in the morning without DS banging on the door, screaming and trying to get in when he became interested in CBeebies. I think telly watching is fine as long as you do other things as well. I do avoid adverts and try to avoid programmes that are really 'in your face' like a lot of american cartoons, but luckily most the stuff on CBeebies is really gentle.

I watched loads of telly as a youngster but also had a very vivid imagination (sadly dampened down by years of work, not by telly watching), loved reading books, did loads of sport and was quite academic.

I was in exactly the same place as Esme 1 year ago and it definitely kept me sane. DD1 seems fine and dandy on it!

cbeebies is actually very educational..with science programmes such a nina and the neurons and the number jacks i do believe they helped my daughter learn

Lol - there is no doubt that Nina is fantastic, but DH and I were trying to work out the point of Numberjacks the other day (what a riveting marriage we have...)

Oh Cbeebies is fab (apart from the shite programmes like Numberjacks and Waybaloo). DS watches a fair bit, but we go out lots too, I think it has done him good over the years.

It was VERY useful when dd2 was born

I also agree about it being great when dc are no longer napping, but still needing chill-out time. DD2 is at this stage and gets the Bits And Bobs/Balamory combo, which does drive me insane I must say

erm no cbeebies is NOT a lifeline at all

bloody ridiculous

NICK JR 2 is

Sorry to hi-jack thread, but at what age were your LOs when they actually were able to sit still enough to watch CBeebies for longer than 5 minutes at a stretch? For 15 minutes at a stretch and longer?

DD was about 3, DS was younger but he just copied his big sister. At 17 months he only ever watches for a few minutes at a time, his sister (4) has been known to sit for an hour

Madremia09 do not feel guilty whatsoever. During bad weather here I'd plop them in front of Beebies and bugger off to the computer to surf the web about "noble" things like country crafts such as beekeeping and gardening.

In Germany kids now have an annual check up - is that the same in UK? The Paediatrician (Kinderarzt) asked me how much TV they watch as one of the questions in a questionnaire, and recommended that they only watch half an hour a day (I squirmed with embarrassment there). So now I've set the timer on the sat receiver to go off in 30 minutes no matter what is on, so no arguing. It just switches itself off! No more arguments about "Can we watch the end of Mr Maker?" Job done and problem solved!

But if Bob the Builder comes on I'll sit by and erm, check it doesn't get too violent.

And the best thing is that once they grow out of it there's CBBC, which actually has some good cartoons and Dick and Dom

I used to feel guilty about this all the time but my ds does plenty of other things too i.e playgroup, out playing with friends, out and about with me. As long as their day is varied doing other stuff, watching tv at the end of the day or when you're trying to get stuff done is no bad thing. I let ds watch tv a lot yesterday afternoon as it was too hot for him outside and he just wanted to stay in and chill out.

I'm sure some mums use it like this but you'd never catch me doing it

DS went through a (thankfully short) stage recently of waking me at between 4 and 4-45 - I used to count the minutes until 6am.