Tv - Page 2

[butterfly_mommy]

DS goes from watching none to about 2 hours or so a day depending on the day and what we are doing. It is always either CBC or TVO which has no commercials and mostly has shows with very little branding.

Yesterday he watched no TV

For ex today DS watched 10 mins of Wibbly Pig as he got his nails cut, tidied up his cars and put on his sandals.

On Sunday he watched about 30 mins or so of what he calls "Speed, I am Speed" "Cars" DVD his uncle gave him that he has yet to watch all of.

I will pretty much turn on the TV or put on a DVD for him if he asks and we are not heading out or something. He loves Signing Time and will sometimes go a week with watching 1-2 signing Time DVDs everyday.

Or and he watches TV or a DVD when I shower with his pants of in case he needs to use the potty

[foodymama]

DD had become obsessed about TV. Everything was TV and she wanted to watch this and she wanted to watch that and she is the type of child that would stay fixated on the TV and wouldn't do anything else.

So DH and I agreed to severly cut back on TV. There is no TV during the week unless one of us is sick. But the weekend is her TV time. If we are home she loves watching "toons with Dada". If we are traveling we take the DVD player along and she gets to watch in the car. It also works out that we visit her Gramma and Grampa on the weekends quite frequently and they have the TV on 24/7 so it fits in with our weekends only rule.

[dachshund mom]

15mo DD watches a little. The AAP stance seems to be that it doesn't help them learn, but I don't think it's hurting her either. I put it on when I otherwise would not be interacting with her. I don't leave it on all day. Every now and then I put it on to Sprout or Nick Jr and quickly turn it off because the shows are just plain stupid.

She watches the second half of Sesame Street (Elmo's World) while I get us ready to head out the door in the am. I frequently pop in a video checked out from the library in the evening while I clean up and make dinner. She likes Signing Times or a Sesame or Barney songs DVD. DH is gone from 5am to 7pm, a looooong day together, and that last hour is brutal.

[jenofur]

We didn't let our daughter watch TV for the first 2 years (she'll be 3 in August). She'll watch Little Bear, Yo Gabba Gabba or Sesame Street once in awhile but we can go days without watching anything. Once we do let her watch TV then it's all she wants to do for the rest of the day and will cry and complain about it but we never give in...well I did once but I was really sick. She gets over it pretty fast and will then go off on her own and play.

My husband was the one who wanted to be strict about not watching TV for the 1st 2 years...I didn't see what the big deal was but now I'm glad we did it. We are expecting our next child in Feb and will do the same so she'll be watching A LOT less when #2 comes.

[Artichokie]

None. We have a tv in the basement that we leave unplugged except in the case of emergency (tornados), but we do not watch tv on a regular basis.

she has seen some youtube videos of animals in the wild when she was going through her "what sounds does a --- make" phase.

[YayJennie]

Originally Posted by rightkindofme

TV free here. She has seen youtube videos. I try to only show her a few and that's once or twice a week. Lately her thing is 'watching babies being born' because we are trying to prep her for the upcoming birth.

Same exact thing here! My (15 month old) does like to watch music videos on youtube occasionally, but we don't have a TV. We've been watching birth videos to try to get him exposed to the idea, but he's not into it at all.

[BethMama]

Depends on the day with DS (22 mos). Tougher days I am more lax (a show in am and pm), some days none at all, but only dvd's (classic Pooh or Veggietales), or PBS. We don't do commercialized shows- the commercials, even on Nick Jr., are sooo overstimulating, even to me!

[Magali]

My toddler watches anything from 0-5 hours of tv on an average day. We don't have cable, we watch movies and download shows. Watching shows are something dh and I really enjoy to do together, and I see no reason to not let my little guy enjoy it too. We do lots of other stuff like going to the park, playing outside etc...but we all really like to get cozy and watch stuff.

[Letitia]

We disconnected our satellite, which left us with no reception, when DD was about 3 months old. She's now 3, DS is 2. They've seen videos on Youtube and they've seen a little TV other places, I don't have a problem with that. But we don't watch any at all at home.

We do have the capability to watch DVD's and I wouldn't be totally against letting them watch a little at some point, but there's just never seemed a need. They both are completely able to entertain themselves even if I can't be leading some activity, and really I'd rather that they be doing that than vegging in front of the screen. If we do get some DVD's, it'll likely be from the library and I'm sure it won't be a daily thing.

We talk about getting the satellite back or something like that, but right now we really can't afford to and DP and I are probably much better off without it.

[Headmeister]

Initially I wanted my DD to be TV-free, but I also wanted her to learn sign language so I bought dvd's to teach her (and me as well) and she's watch them every morning from the age of 6months (20 mins worth). After that point, once she was signing 20+ words, she would ask for the dvd's and so, had no issues showing them to her. She eventually learned btwn 40-50 words, and was (and has been) communicating with us from about 9 months on, dropping the sign as soon as she'd learn to pronounce the word. Her vocabulary is fantastic now, and I can only attribute it to having learned how to communicate when she didn't yet have the verbal skills to do so.

With that said, at around 12 months, she would watch Sesame Street occasionally. That escalated to every morning once she was about 16 months, with a little Barney thrown in. At her current age of 21 months, she loves Sesame Street, can tell you all of the characters (humans included), and knows a lot of the songs they sing. She is definitely learning a LOT from them.

She also has just discovered movies, and *LOVES* them. Her favorite by far are the Toy Story movies, and she is completely enamored with Buzz and Woody. She has never been afraid at any parts of either the first or second movie (she's not an easily frightened child though and loves to have someone scare her...lol).

She goes to daycare while I work and they have projects & playtime there all day long. I don't see the harm in an hour or 1.5 hours of TV a day for her to watch PBS or Curious George or something. If I'm sick, she's at daycare anyway so she's not watching TV so I can rest - however if was a SAHM, you bet your @#$ I'd be using it to help me. You have to do what you have to do, period.

My take on it is this: I don't use TV to babysit my kid. If I'm with her while it's on, I see nothing wrong with it. TV is everywhere, it's not new, and it's not going away. It taught me how to count in Spanish when I was 4 years old (Sesame Street) and it's teaching my DD useful things as well (animals & their sounds, etc at this age). I don't vilify anyone for NOT letting their kid watch, but would never vilify anyone FOR letting their kid watch, either... as long as they weren't sitting there all day long, 7 days a week.

[dogretro]

None. We have not had a tv for years, since before the kids were born. We used to not even watch dvd's. The exception was if you were too sick to go to work that you could watch as much of whatever you wanted on the computer. DD1 really started to watch a lot (dvds on the comp) during my first tri b/c I was too tired & sick to get up w/ her in the morning. She would watch while I slept. I cut it back after I felt better, but she still watched some every day (video playlists on youtube or netflix movies). During our two week babymoon, we let her watch as much as she wanted every day b/c we treated it like a vacation. She watched almost all day long, but was tired of it by the end of the two weeks. DH and I watch a few shows regularly, but once the season finales started happening, I said that we should go tv-free again for the summer. He agreed, so it is back to nothing, no shows, no movies, unless someone is sick. DD1 asked for her shows every day at first, but all of them have books, too, some of which we own & some from the library. She is now content to flip through those instead. I tell her that when it snows out she can watch them. We will see, though, b/c I'd rather she not. We spend a lot of time outside even if the weather is less than pleasant. DD1 and I both own rain coats, so a week of rain would not deter me It has also been crazy hot & we do a lot of water play.

I absolutely use the tv as a babysitter. To me, that is the whole point. She is happily watching & talking along w/ it & I can go do something else. I will watch it w/ her now and then, but since it is all videos, I do not feel like watching the same episodes over and over.

[elleystar]

DS gets one half hour show a week. If we're going through a period of really bad weather, he may get two. We've read the Max & Ruby books to him since he was a baby but he never knew there was a show until last fall. So to watch a little M&R is special to him but we much prefer to read books here.
DH & I watch a show here and there but we DVR everything so we watch once DS has gone to bed. He has also never seen a movie.

[not_telling]

I've been feeling a bit guilty about this. We haven't really put on any children's programs for DS until recently. He probably watched bits and pieces of Sesame Street ("on demand") several times during the past year (times when DH was working late and I had to get dinner done). A few weeks ago, though, I discovered that we have Sprout (I had no idea!). We had seen a few episodes of Caillou on "on demand" and I think it is a quality show, so when I saw that it comes on in the evenings, I decided to let DS watch. He's also been watching "Kipper", which comes on before Caillou, which I also think is a good show. Everything else I've seen on Sprout, which is not much, looks kinda crappy to me.

So, now he's spending about 30-45 min. GLUED (that's the guilt part) to the TV in the evening, which is when DH is usually making dinner and I'm doing stuff around the house. The TV's not on at all before that, but then it usually stays on, but tuned to stuff DH and I want to watch.

[zinemama]

My toddlers didn't watch any. I hear you on the week of straight rain, but for me using TV in that situation would have been a slippery slope. And I knew I would slide straight down it if we had one. It was easier not to.

[AmyKT]

Some days it might be 5 hours (gasp!), though not with full attention on it at all times, and other days it might be 30 minutes or less. It really varies depending on everyone's level of health, energy, and general interests for the day. I used to stress about it, but now that I see it's not an addiction (just something that's fun to do sometimes), I try not to worry about it. DD spends a lot of time out of the house playing with friends at half-day school and doing fun things with us, so I know she's getting a well-rounded experience.

We don't generally watch commercial TV, though. It's either DVDs or commercial-free TV.

On nights when DH is not at home, DD and I usually find a fun movie to watch together on NetFlix instant play, and I think that the fact that she can stay interested in a complex 1.5 hour movie is a good thing, not a bad one. We talk about the movie and most definitely make it about more than just zoning out, though that can be nice, too .

[blizzard_babe]

DS doesn't watch much, but he does watch some. Nothing specific, just whatever we're watching. We don't have cable or satellite and our area has no broadcast stations, so it's whatever we've gotten on Netflix. I think he occasionally sees children's TV at the babysitter's house (he goes two mornings a week during the school year when DH and I have conflicting work schedules), but other than that, he just watches what we're watching, which is generally whatever we've gotten from Netflix. Let's just say he recognizes the theme song from Star Trek: Voyager and will run in from another room yelling, "SPACESHIP TIME! IT'S SPACESHIP TIME!"

So... probably an hour a day on a big day.

Except right now. We're staying at MIL/FIL's house and the TV is Just. Always. On. Like I feel weird turning it off if I'm the only one in the room. But... it's summer vacation. Back to normal life in a month.

[lisavark]

My DD is watching tv right now.

She didn't really see any until she was older than two, although she did nurse to sleep in the sling during a LOT of movies. She went through a stage when the easiest way to put her to sleep was to turn all the lights out and put a movie on with her in the sling. Ah, the days.

Anyway, at 18 months she mostly quit napping, even though she still REALLY needs it, so now we have meltdowns every afternoon unless she happened to have a nap. My current rule is that if she hasn't napped AND it wasn't a preschool day (she goes twice a week), meaning I've been with her all day and she hasn't napped at all and she's melting down from exhaustion, then tv is ok. Otherwise no. But on days when she DOES nap sometimes DH will use it in the evenings (like now) to entertain her because she stays up so. freaking. late. He loves to watch Man vs. Wild with her.

Oh, but when I show her "tv," it's always Mary Poppins. We tried a couple of kids' movies on those post-nap really late nights...they all scared her so we'd turn them off right away. Then one late night DH discovered Mary Poppins. DD is obsessed. I bought the soundtrack for her to listen to at bedtime now, and she has every word memorized of every song and sings them frequently--it's awesome!

But also, when the tv is on, she's glued. I'm the same way, actually--just can't tune it out. So I really want to limit it for that reason.