How much TV?

[mrsrobbo]

I was wondering how much TV time you give your LO's each day. I try not to give Bradley a lot. He generally watches Barney while Im getting ready for work in the morning then I try not to have it on until after tea. and then he gets 30 mins, the only thing is now he just goes and turns it on! He would watch Barney all day! He loves dancing and singing along. He gets stressed out and cranky when I turn it off, I do distract him the only thing that really helps is if we go outside but we still have snow so we cant be out all the time!

[rebecaq]

Bev,

Weird you should bring this up today. I've been having all the regular battles you'd expect with a 21 month old. Expect for some reason it felt like it was happening too often, then tantrums.....followed by bad naps. Well to cut the story short, I decided today to keep the tv off all day. No Baby Einsteins, no Backyardigans (his fave) nothing! And I swear I'm not exaggerating when I say he did not have ONE tantrum today. And he's teething with his 2 year molars! His nap was wonderful, it was just an amazing day.

Of course I'm not saying NO tv ever. but it definitely has a negative influence. IMHO

- Beca

[RachelC]

The girls watch some in the morning (usually 30-45 minutes, sometimes less, depends on wake up time for Paige... we have to be done watching by 8 to keep on track to get out of the house).  During that time we get hair combed, so it is mostly a distraction tool for them.  Jalyn walks in and out of the room and does not watch intently.

Usually that's it for the day.  It so helps in our house that we do not have a TV where we spend more of our time, otherwise I am sure it would be on much more often.

[Mom to M&M]

Weekdays Marisa watches about an hour total - broken up in 15-20 minute segments before nap, before dinner and a short stint before bed. On the weekends it's generally less. She really only likes Sesame Street and Dora.

[JennŠ]

Half hr of Play with me sesame that we record.   Sometimes a Muppets or Elmo video.  Then she watchs for a bit, wanders off, then comes back. 

[Sylvia.]

me i am pretty against tv, i keen on any paid tv, dd gets to watch tv about 4 times a week, never more, watch about 60/75 minutes at a time, she loves it, she only watches it when dd1 is sleeping, there was a time that she watched it more and i was alright with that at the time, it was a need for me to let her, she wasn't happy when i cut it back but she got over it quicly, i just stood my ground and set up interesting activities

[Erin M]

We watch a little bit in the morning if we're around, usually while I shower I'll put it on so dd1 doesn't tear the house apart.  I'll generally turn it on in the late afternoons as well while I'm cooking dinner.  Some days we don't watch any TV, some days we watch way more than I'd like. 

If he gets bothered when you turn it off, I would do a countdown of sorts to help him transition -- "Barney is almost over, then we'll go and play blocks" or whatever -- then at the end you can say "bye-bye Barney, see you later" and turn it off and move on.  Toddlers do much better with warnings that transitions are coming.

[Mom to M&M]

Ditto on the transitions. We tell DD things like "after this song it's time for lunch" or "after Dora is over we'll go out in the stroller", etc. Seems to help a lot - DD will protest if we just randomly turn it off but not seem to bat an eye with the warnings.

[mrsrobbo]

thanks for your replies, im going to try the warnings, see if that helps. it makes sense so hopefully!