Straw poll - is TV in the morning REALLY bad for DSs?

[Paddingtonblue]

I realised this morning that I tend to get the boys up (well, they get me up at unholy o'clock) and we have breakfast together and then I wap the TV on and use that time while they are glued to Fireman Sam to have a shower, organise things for the day, clean up the kitchen, all that kind of stuff. Realistically, I am guessing it is on for an hour or so. DSs are 2.5 and 1.5 and I am a SAHM, so the rest of the day I am with them and we are doing things like going to Playgroup and the park and making rockets out of boxes and baking and all those kinds of things that we wanted for them with me staying home, but part of me thinks that TV in the morning is somehow worse than later in the day. I would be really keen to know how many other people put the TV on in the morning..... or am I just a real slattern

Why on earth would TV in the morning be worse than at any other time of the day?!

Mine have always had us up at stupid o'clock too and I've always put the TV on to give me time to come round on the weekend or sort out packed lunches/breakfast during the week. They probably watch about 30 minutes on a school day and an hour or two on the weekend. They are 3 and 5. They also watch 30 minutes before bed as it chills them out nicely. They rarely have it on during the day as they don't really ask for it.

As long as it's not causing trouble i.e. a reluctance to get ready and go out or setting them up for a day of demanding TV constantly then I don't see the harm personally.

No, it isn't. It's fine and good and nice.

I have a phobia about TV in the morning but rationally it's no different to any other time.

The danger in this house would be trying to turn it off once it's on, I prefer to defer it as long as possible.

I don't know why I think morning TV would be any worse, it feels kind of like morning drinking somehow. No reluctance or demanding seems to come from it, I just have to be sure that I warn them it is going to go off. And be prepared for my son to play with Fireman Sam for the rest of the day having seen him in the morning.

EXACTLY what jamaisdedors said.

I find that I feel sluggish if I have watched tv in the morning, and I dislike trying to get ds out of the house to school when he is watching/has watched it, so it mostly doesn't happen in our house. But you're not facing the school issue, and it clearly works for you, so I wouldn't worry about it.

The only worry is if they seem to continue to get up early after other children their age have started to sleep until civilised hours, in order to get telly! But unfortunately you're not at that stage yet...

I know what you mean about equating it to morning drinking.

I feel wierd watching TV in the day - do you know it never occurred to me to turn on the TV during my maternity leaves?

No wonder I was desperate to get back to work!

Now Mning in the morning, THERE is something which should be banned (waking from the trance in a daze 3 hours later with a crick in the neck, and children rampaging round the house still in pjs)!

Dd (4) watches about an hour in the morning on a weekday.

I would say it is much better in the morning than at night before they go to bed. I think it impacts on quality of sleep if shortly before bed.

Actually I agree with maktaitai about the worry about them getting up early (we are obv. kindred spirits!).

One time we told DS1 (5) that on a Sunday morning when he woke up he could go down and eat biscuits in front of the TV.

He was up demanding Tv at 6.30 - normally up at 8-8.30am!

when i just had ds1 i never ever turned teh tv on before 7pm when he was in bed. it wasn't a conscious decision. it just never occurred to me that it was something we could do. we always had soemthing to do but since i started my mat leave with ds2 in march last year i am afraid to say i leave the tv on as background noise quite often. in fact this thread has made me realise how ridiculous that is. i'm going to leave it off tomorrow and see what we can manage to get done.

DS2 is certainly seeing more TV than DS1 ever did. I just didn't have it on before DS2 arrived. Actually I lie, when DS1 was about 3 months I would watch Richard and Judy until I realised that DS could see the TV and was forming an unnatural obsession with Richard, smiling more broadly at him than he ever did at DH or me.

I tend to try and delay tv until after lunch in our house. DS is nearly 4 and DD is 18 months. In the mornings we have to be out of the house most days by 8.30 and tv would slow us down I think. Also after lunch DD usually has a sleep and I have a bit of quiet time whilst DS is glued to Ceebeebies. I'm SAHM too atm, and need a bit of a rest at that time of day!

I don't think that it matters when they watch, just that they aren't doing it all day. I grew up without tv until about 8-9 yrs old myself.

paddington that is very cute.

I have just trained my 5yo with sleep disorder, to come tell me he is up and then take himself downstairs to turn on and watch tv. as he gets up at 5:30am and I am suffering the bad effects of sleep deprivation i am eternally grateful for the fact that there is tv that early in the morning. He gets up no earlier because he know he can have tv, and it wakes him up slower so he is generally in a better mood despite having been up so early. Get him up and doing when he has been up at 5:30 and he is in an evil mood all day. Then again so am I.

Stop worrying. There is nothing wrong with some tv, and whatever time of the day it is necessary for you to do what you need to do.

It is kind of insidious though isn't it? I started putting it on when I was getting their dinner at about 4.30 and then started the morning showing when DH started this new job and so isn't around so much in the mornings. They are both just as happy to sit down with me and read a book, but i can see how those stats about children watching x hours a week happen now. Before I had a couple of toddlers, those stats horrified me.

DH puts the tv on all bloody day when he's on duty, but in the mornings he and DS (18mo) watch a programme or 2 on I-player while I shower and get ready, keeps them both occupied so I can wash in peace.

DS sometimes then has ITNG before bed depending how busy our day has been

god, I couldn't cope without Milkshake in the morning! DD is 2 and DC2 due any day. It gives me a chance to do the dishes/have a coffee/have a shower and generally wake up. We are usually out of the house by 10 doing stuff, or playing in the garden, and then depending on the weather it doesn't really go on again til maybe an episode of charlie and lola before bed. If the weather's crap I might let her watch tv while I'm getting dinner ready, otherwise she is out playing in the back garden.

I would say I feel more guilty about letting her watch tv during the daytime when we could be out doing something than in the morning when we're just waking up... but then I was always a bbc breakfast news junkie when I was getting up for work so maybe I'm just used to breakfast telly being the norm.

I think my DD watches a bit too much TV, it only started close to when DS was due. I was so tired! We're generally cutting down (both our viewing and hers) especially on weekends as we'd end up doing nothing else. Even if we could afford it, we wouldn't get cable/sky tv now as we'd have more reason to watch it. DH and I hate the fact that his DDs just watch TV all day. They will watch anything and laze around all day - even milkshake type stuff, they're 12 FGS!

everything in moderation though, it's not the worst thing in the world. As long as you do other stuff too!