What things do you not let your DC have that others parents do.

[lovingmy2]

Just intersted really.

My DS is in reception (nearly 5) and all his friends and cousins around similar age have a TV in their rooms but both DH and I refuse to let him have one. He goes up to bed at half six, I read him a story and then he can choose a book to look at (read) before i go back in at 7:15pm to take it off him (usually he has fallen asleep with book on face).

We don't let him play out on the front (even though we live on a close) without me sitting on my chair with him when all the other children on the close are allowed.

We don't let him brush his own teeth either although recently we have let him start brushing them and we finish them off.

DDs are 5 and nearly 3.
no artificial sweeteners.WHY does even the school give out drinks with these in? They are marketed for children as better for teeth but Lord knows what they are doing to the rest of you.
No artificial colours.DD reacted to something coloured as a two year old so I have banned them.
Hydrogenated fats (but wouldn't ask if was in friend's house).
Tv in bedroom? I don't know anyone whose five year old has this.Anyway they co-sleep.
No tv with ads.C-beebies or DVDs only here.
I think that's it.Oh I have a ban on name calling "x is stupid" etc,that kind of thing,I hate it.

erm, haven't let them have a telly in their room but that's partly because there is no room for telly unless there is a miassive clearout of cuddly toys and books which will not go down well.

Now they are older we might consider a telly in the room

We really don't give that much of a shit

My little girl is only a little girl once, which is why I don't want her to spend her girlhood messing around conforming to this manufactured, plastic-y, saccharine notion of girlhood that has become so very much the norm. I want her to make choices based as much on her own free will as possible, and not because she has been brainwashed into it by corporations. I want her to play, like a little girl, and not start wanting make up when she is three. Like I said, I worry that the pink princess phase is inevitable. Not because it's natural in itself, but because wanting to be the same as your peers is natural.

I have a coupla friends who have banned chewing gum and horrid henry books and tracey beaker tv and all things barbie and pink things and christian groups and I think it's all a bit pointless

Mo - but children don't do just one thing though do they, that defines them. For example DD loves pink and princesses and dressing up and fairies and pretty sparkly things and ballet (not real ballet, yet!)

She also loves riding her bike (which is black and boy like!), and climbing, and running through mud and swimming in the sea, and watching ants and beetles through magnifying glass, she loves the stars and all things to do with planets and earth. She has spent the last few days outdoors ALL day, and has scratches and bruises all up her legs from running through woodland and chasing chickens and most of her 'peers' are boys who run around with swords and guns.

She watches some disney films (but, funnily enough, not the Princess one!) She also watches lots of for example Studio Ghibli.

Its about balance, pink and princess and commercial is fine, if it is balanced with other things.

My friend has banned fizzy drinks.

Her two came to my son's party - it was an outdoor picnic, and we couldn't find her kids.

We eventually found them next to the drinks esky, drinking can after can of fizzy drink. They'd had 3 each when we found them.

All the other kids weren't bothered in the slightest about the cans. To her kids they were 'forbidden fruit'.

DSs are 6 and 2

No TVs in room (but I know nobody with a TV in the kids' rooms). In fact, no TV at all except the occasional DVD.

No games consoles (Wiis, DSs, etc) - yet.

No fizzy drinks, branded foods, processed foods (except if at a party), chips no more than once a fortnight, otherwise, I believe in everything in moderation.

No swords or guns (except that they pretend everything is a light sabre or sword!).

No jumping on furniture.

Pavlov, I do agree that it's all about balance. I just see so many little girls becoming unbalanced wrt the pink/princess/barbie stuff. My dsd has been obsessed with these things for years, to the exclusion of everything else.

I have no problem with my daughter pretending to be a queen, or a princess. She likes pretending to be other things too. But I do dislike the way this stuff is marketed at little girls. And the fact that it's often so cheap looking... I want my dd to have things that don't look cheap.

My dd likes 'Beauty and The Beast', and I am happy for her to watch it, even if the end message isn't so reassuring (happiness is a handsome prince? Possibly. Belle seems feisty enough to not want to just sit on a throne all day). She owns some fairly girly dolls and accessories. There are probably certain princess things (non-Disney) I would buy if she wanted them. But I really don't like the Disney Princess thing, the way it's marketed, and I really don't want to buy into it.

Chewing gum, clothes that make her look like a hooker, and jeans.

The first because it's repulsive, the second just because, and the third, because at the moment she has no discernable waist and trousers with those adjustable waistband things just bunch up and look horrid, and also because the scritchy denim irritates her skin.

To ban something I need to feel strongly about it, and/or feel convinced that this is going to have serious knock-on effects.

Then again, just because I don't forbid something doesn't mean I have to spend my hard-earned cash on actually providing things I dislike. They can wait/save up/hope somebody else will give it to them.

LilyBolero - does that mean your kids are only allowed to watch BBC? (I thought mums banning ITV was an urban myth...)

FPT - they really don't watch much tv at all, but what they do watch tends VERY much to be BBC, they're not allowed CITV, the exception is Dancing on Ice which ds1 adores, but the ads then aren't aimed at kids, so not such an issue.

I REALLY hate ads on tv, especially ones aimed at kids. They just make kids want crap all the time.

(Given that they aren't allowed TV in the week, not having CITV isn't a real hardship anyway, as it's only really on during the week!).

No tv in room, no fish, flesh or fowl (we are veggie;-))

My dd has sprite once a month or so, I can't ban a lot of foods because she has such a limited diet she wouldn't eat anything.
I have banned horrid Henry and Junie B Jones (I even went as far as visiting her school library and having a note put on her card).
She self censored pink sparkles, at one stage she needed to wear pink/purple. Since moving to Switzerland she has rejected anything in those colours. TBH, clothes shopping is a disaster, she refuses to wear anything other than leggings (not ideal in the snow), has exceptionally thin feet so shoe buying is shocking and doesn't like wearing the same clothes as everyone else. Tough tit love, we've got Migros, C+A or H+M in our town.

My dd is 4 and wants to wear make up because she sees me put it on (not everyday) so I am not sure I can blame society for that! the only reason I had no clue about make up till my 20's was due to my mum never wearing any.

I don't let my DD1 (8) have sleepovers or go to them. Big faff to me.

And I don't let her watch EastEnders or Embarrassing Bodies (to be fair I don't watch them either) but other girls in her class do (confirmed by the parents).

Are the Disney Princess stories different/worse in some way than the original Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White that we knew as children?

My dd1 is about to turn 4 and loves these stories. She has some of the books, not Disney, just some we found at a charity sale and a DVD obviously copied from a really old fashioned looking video with Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella and she loves them.

I grew up with these stories and although I know the idea that the way to happiness is to find a handsome prince who will take care of you is not the one you want your dd to live by I think they are harmless.

Do parents who ban the Disney princesses ban the old versions of these as well?

I don't let my daughter watch any commercial channels either. It's not a blanket ban that I intend to keep going forever; at some point I intend to let her watch the ads and try and teach her how not to me drawn in by them...

But I also just don't want her clamouring for all the expensive rubbish they advertise. I loathe the way products are so cynically marketed at children.

Just to be clear, I don't ban the stories, particularly. It's just the merchandise, much of which is silly, and of poor quality. My daughter has watched many of the Disney films, and as I said earlier, she loves 'Beauty and The Beast', also 'Jungle Book', and 'The Aristocats'. She doesn't enjoy 'Cinderella' or 'Snow White', or 'Fox and The Hound'. She tends to prefer Pixar films ('Wall-E' is a favourite, as is 'Toy Story', and 'Monsters Inc).

I do think one should be careful with any media that you expose children to, though.

To be fair, my daughter doesn't yet seem to actually want any princess stuff. She generally seems to clamour for Mr Men stuff at the moment, despite having none of the books. She likes the bright colours, I think.

I avoided TV with ads for a long time, then they discovered Peppa Pig so we were converted to Nick Jr, I was a bit nervous about the blatant advertising, but they totally ignore all the ones for toys and have asked me to buy Cillit Bang and Vanish Oxy Action.

One of the DDs friends has had a TV in her room since she was 3 and watches DVDs every evening until she falls asleep and every morning then she gets up, of course mine are always pestering me for one (no chance)

Other than no TVs in the bedroom
No fizzy drinks unless we are out in a restaurant
No cheesy Wotsits (that's because I cannot stand the smell makes me barf) in fact anything artifically cheesy makes me barf
They are only allowed on the Wii if Daddy is supervising and then only for a little while maybe at weekends.
Very rarely have the TV on, I hate houses that have cbeebies blaring constantly, children not watching it and adults shouting over it.

I don't actually ban stuff, but make an effort to avoid certain things appearing on the dc's radar. The dcs have never seen a soap (but are big fans of lots of tv programmes), certainly wouldn't have telly in rooms, don't "snack" (I have uncovered some contraband in ds's room, though, from time to time!).

I think people should bear in mind that it's one thing smugly saying that your 5-year-old dc never touches a Fruit Shoot and quite another being able to hold your head up and say your 15-year-old has spurned the modern obsession for mobile phones.

Sorry - hijack but why no margarine, Aspartame or Sodium Benzoate ?

Why are they bad?