Toddlers and TV

J

joyofliving

Registered User
Hi everyone,
Just want to know how much TV do your children watch? Since I don't have a full time helper I used to put the TV on for my little one for 15- 20 mins if I had to do something urgently. But now at 16 months she demands for the TV to be switched on and screams if we don't turn it on. In one day she watches upto 1 hour of TV which I am afraid is a lot for a child her age. Especially worried since it seems to have become a habit for her. I try to distract her with books or toys or by going out but when she is done with all that she is again back to the TV. I know American Academy of Pediatrics says no TV till 2 years of age and only 1 hour of educational stuff after 2 years. Any suggestions would be great... :)
 
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I have a 17mth old and I only allow 20-30min intervals of TV, usually once in the morning and once after lunch. It all sounds OK but at night after his dad comes home, the TV would be on during dinner and after dinner so the lil one 'sees' the TV but doesn't actually 'watch' it like he does when I play his DVDs. It's hard when you have to walk away and leave them alone in the living room. The TV seems to be the only distractor that keeps them away from any potential accident.
 
you are going to think i'm terrible... our tv pretty much is on all day long. my kids don't watch it all the time, but it is on. that's how i like it myself. i like having the background noise.

the kids actually learn a lot from watching playhouse disney. my kids are very, very active, so i'm not worried that having the tv on means that they are couch potatoes. they are anything BUT.

i don't have a problem with the tv being on.
 
I've found if you make a big deal about limiting TV time, it suddenly becomes something that they want all the time. ( You always want what you can't have!)

My 2.5 year old has always been allowed to watch as much TV as he wants, and as a result hardly watches it at all.
A lot of the time he asks for it, but then continues play Lego or whatever, while it's on in the background.

My one year old doesn't pay it much attention unless there is music on, and will stop and listen, and then continue playing.
 
Same as Cara and Matty, we don't make too big of a deal of it and our programmes are often on in the 'background'.

My 2 yr. old specifically asks for and loves CBeebies at various different times of the day (in between spending most of her time outside) and is massively into Pixar films which she has on every night with her evening bottle. Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc being the current favourites.
 
my 2 year old LOVES Mickey's Clubhouse. my 4 year old LOVES Animal Mechanicals.

like others said, we never make a big deal out of it. UNLESS the kids are being naughty. that is one of the punishments, we turn off the tv. it works a charm!
 
We didn't let my son watch any TV until he turned 2 and then it was only 30 minutes every night after his bath and we only let him watch DVD's (such as Curious George, etc...), but once my daughter was born, we couldn't let her not watch TV while he was, so she started much sooner. Again, it is only for 30 minutes each evening only after dinner/bath. We definitely use it as a punishment if they are being naughty, and then they don't get to watch anything at all.
Both of them enjoy watching TV; however since they don't regularly watch, it isn't something that they ask for or want during the day, and if they have it on too long (such as a long plane ride) they actually ask to turn it off so they can do something else, like read a book or play.
 
I am like Carang and LeahH. We pretty much have the tv on most of time in the background. Because of this my son doesn't actually watch it much at all (he is super active so won't sit still long enough) and never actually asks for it. I watch a lot of Animal Planet and Nat Geo although we do switch it over to CBeebies for In the Night Garden and Spot which he has shown some interest in. He does like You Tube though and often asks to watch footage of diggers working on building sites.
My view is that you should just take your cues from your child. If your child is becoming very dependant upon the TV for entertainment to the detriment of other activities then it's time to turn it off.
 
"I know American Academy of Pediatrics says no TV till 2 years of age and only 1 hour of educational stuff after 2 years."

I always feel that these people do not actually have kids themselves!

We too don't see an issue with TV and have it on a lot. Miss2 will watch it if it is on Miss4 is not that fussed with it. We have it on Playhouse or NickJr and that is about it (for kids TV). I think many of the shows today are actually educational both emotionally and socially so I try not to read about studies and the like that say otherwise..
 
i would have an entirely different take on it if my kids were watching power rangers or GI Joe or something like that. like i said before, so much of hte stuff is educational, i'm surprised at what my son has learned from the tv.
 
Now TV'S Baby TV is excellent and it was kids from 0-3 years of age, Our son has learnt so much from it. What we really like about baby tv is that it has no famous characters that kids get addicted to like Mickey, dora etc
 
Thanks for your replies everyone, my daughter has a few favourites only too Micky Mouse, In the night garden and Teletubbies :)
 
Neha said:
Now TV'S Baby TV is excellent and it was kids from 0-3 years of age, Our son has learnt so much from it. What we really like about baby tv is that it has no famous characters that kids get addicted to like Mickey, dora etc
Click to expand...

Haha, what about Harry the Bunny? Man, if my baby got addicted to that bunny I would put a hole in my head.:tongue:
 
My son LOVES harry the bunny and in the night garden. I have to say a lot of the time these programs bring out a deep seated urge to repeatedly bang my head on the wall but I cant deny how much he's benefited from it -- counted 1-2-3 with harry the bunny, jumped for the first time after the iggle piggle song -- ravenously takes control of toothbrush when the tombliboos brush their ' teeth' (they dont even have any!!) etc.

I used to make an effort to sit down with him and watch baby einstein but I dont anymore. I have a bit of chill time on the couch and throw the occasional comment at him - he repeats a lot of words that he hears off of the TV and I know he likes having me there to hear him do that and essentially repeat after him. Having said that, I dont make an effort to limit his time much -- he's very active and a lot of the time listens to the tv whilst he plays. We dont have cbeebies yet so we use In the night garden VCD's which is a handy way of limiting his time if needs be. I dont make an effort to make every session an educational one. For me I've accepted he's a little person of his own and enjoys watching a little tv every now and then just like mummy and daddy. He's not ever interested if there's anything we want to watch and even though we've been very lax about tv he doesnt seem to miss it now as we've just moved to a house and he seems just as thrilled to play in the garden or in the playroom -- not even when he points to the in the night garden magnets on the fridge its a sort of 'oh look, its them' kind of thing. We're probably not going to have a tv for another month or so lets see how long this keeps up for hehehe..
 
Neha said:
Now TV'S Baby TV is excellent and it was kids from 0-3 years of age, Our son has learnt so much from it. What we really like about baby tv is that it has no famous characters that kids get addicted to like Mickey, dora etc
Click to expand...

Wow, I totally agree with this view. My son once in awhile sees Baby First on TV in the mornings while he's eating breakfast but that's not very regular. However, I am pretty anti-mass-marketed toys. I don't have any problem with kids liking toys or even liking popular toys but I'm kind of choosy--I try to avoid buying clothing with name brands printed on the front or Disney characters. I feel like I don't think my family needs to be a marketing tool for a company. Having said that, though, I have an affinity for Sesame Street because it was such a special show to me when I was growing up--I still enjoy watching it! So, I'm more laid-back about that. I'm definitely not a "purest" but I also want my son to like characters for more than just because they are popular--for example, liking Bob the Builder because he is smart and can make things. Etc.

Personally, unless there is something on TV that I want to listen to or I'm home alone, I don't like the TV on because the noise annoys me (I'd rather have music on in the background so we can dance around and have fun to that) so our TV stays off for most of the day. We also don't have any cable or satellite channels so we only watch local channels (ATV & Pearl) so for most of the day you can watch the stock report update with classical music playing or other random programs or programs in Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese. The only thing that my son requests at 1 1/2-years old is Elmo. So, we watch videos of Elmo from the Sesame Street website.

At that time, he sits on my lap and we watch together. He usually watches Elmo when he's feeling tired. The longest session he's ever made it through was 30 minutes of Elmo's World but that was when he was sick with the flu last year. Usually if he goes for 10 minutes we're pretty impressed--then he's ready to run around again.

Only having one child, even though he can be a handful, it's a bit easier to manage, I think than if you have more than one and need to distract them in order to get something done. If I'm working on something, I usually try to set my son up with something to do nearby me. We have rules about him going into the bathroom and kitchen (they are both small and not baby-proofed so he's not allowed in there) so he will sit at the doorway with some sort of toy or just something random to keep him busy. If I have to go up to our roof to hang up clothes, I either take him with me or put him in his crib to play for a few minutes. So far, TV hasn't proved very helpful as a distraction for us.
 
I don't mind Mickey mouse or cinderella... but i WILL NOT TOLERATE HELLO KITTY!!!!!!!!!!!!

there is absolutely NO HELLO KITTY in my house! LOL...i just think it's the ugliest thing ever~
 
my 3yr old is very much like his father and would watch TV all day every day if you let him. I therefore have to restrict it and he still watches far too much in my opinion. between 0 - 60mins in the morning before school depending on how the morning goes, 30mins before his nap and another 30-60mins before bed. it all adds up.
whilever the TV is on he is 100% glued to it and getting his attention can be difficult. quite scary really. but as i said, EXACTLY like his father!!
thankfully my 1yr old is not interested in TV at all .......except for In the Night Garden
 
My 17mth old has a passion for Elmo and Grover. Since they don't have Sesame Street on tele here, we bought some DVDs from overseas and recorded some when we were there. I've also bought him an Elmo t-shirt but that's as far as I'll go in terms of getting 'commercial' clothing.

Playschool is also a fave of his (I also watched it when I was growing up). As you can see, I spent my mornings recording the programmes on a recent trip back to Sydney. BTW, is In the Night Garden on pay TV or the free channels?
 
my daughter loves playschool, too! i bought a bunch of dvd's when i was in oz last year.. they've been well-played.
 
My daughter loves to watch TV every day she turn it on by herself hhahah she learn alot from disney channel which is a good things. Be honest we do not mind at all , she just love to have the noise at background ,sometimes she don't even watch it but only the hear the noise and music.

Fingerscrossed
The night garden is on pay TV channel.
 
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