How much do they know

[Hannahsmummy]

For other screen free families, I wonder how much your kids know about TV and movies.
My daughter is almost 5 and has never shown any interest in knowing about TV or movies and has never seen them except in public places (no sound) and once at a friends place. It's just not a part of her life.

However, she is completely mesmerized when she sees it somewhere. Once it's out of sight, it's out of mind though.

Up until now she's never asked anything about it. She doesn't know the characters, and we have few friends who watch TV so she doesn't hear much about it from other kids.

Anyway yesterday we were out at a restaurant and they have a screen there that plays a 24 news show with the sound off. She started to ask questions about it, she said "Mummy, what's a movie?" "Is this a movie?" while pointing at it. She then started a running and excited commentary on what was happening, sigh

So, what do your kids know about it? Are they interested, do they ask questions? What do you say? Just curious.

[loraxc]

So much of the other kids' play at preschool is movie-based that DD will introduce the idea of "a movie" into her play. "Now this is a movie, and we're going to..." I'm not sure she actually knows what the word means, though! It's just another pretend scenario, basically.

She has NO idea that there are whole channels that play kids' shows all day long. That would probably sort of blow her mind.

She actually is not that interested when she runs across TV, even if it's kid-oriented. She'll watch for maybe 10 minutes.

[Hannahsmummy]

Only one response?? Thanks for that one by the way!

Does no one have children who are curious about the TV/movies? No one has a struggle with this? Doesn't anyone has concerns about the media intruding on your media free lifestyle?

[goldfinch]

My kids are 3.5. We're not 100% screen-free (they do watch youtube clips now and again, and call them "movies") but they have not ever watched a full-length movie or any sort of full-length program (oh, I lie:they watched a few episodes of the Electric Company when I had the flu and was in my first trimester of pg at the same time and couldn't get off the couch... )

Anyway, they know various characters from books, their friends at preschool ("barbie" just entered my dd's vocabulary... , and the like, but haven't really expressed an interest in television or movies. Once in awhile they will open the TV cabinet, turn on the (no-cable) TV, and say "we want to watch television!" but I am always able to turn it off without incident (frankly, I think they are more interested in getting a reaction out of me by turning it on than they are in watching a program.)

But my kids are younger than your daughter. Who knows how (and if) things will change in the next year and a half.

I am pretty up-front with my kids about things. I tell them "some kids watch TV, but I don't like having you watch TV because you have so much fun when you play, and use your imagination, and read books, and do projects, and run around, and if you're watching TV you're not really doing any of those other things." That works so far, but they are still under 4 and not really influenced by peer pressure and the like.

[EyesOfTheWorld]

We aren't 100% screen-free, there is the occasional short DVD so they do understand the "concept" of a movie, but they're clueless when it comes to a TV-show. They really don't get the concept of TV. That there are some places where if you turn on the TV it isn't blank, but there are multitudes of things to watch, all the time.

BUT I have to say that I won't mind when they do. I don't want them exposed to it often, but to understand what it is wouldn't upset me. There are lots of things I don't want them to have as a part of thier daily lives, but knowledge of them isn't necessarily bad. I've used situations like that as a platform for discussion.