[TudoBem]

We took ds to a church nursery the other week and after 15 minutes they turned on the TV to a cartoon. Now there was a roomful of toys (nice ones). The kids were all playing and doing their thing, so why do the attendants need to turn on a TV? And why is there even a TV in the nursery? I could understand if there was nothing there to do, but there was a roomful of toys! And once the TV was on, the kids stopped playing and just stared at it, while the younger ones were upset by the noise. Why turn on a TV?
Any insights into this? Is it some adult habit or just laziness?

 

[MamaBug]

I would say laziness. It could also be conditioning. Some adults feel that even if a child is happy playing they would be happier watching TV. Maybe you could ask them? Unless you don't mind it for just that once a week thing, kwim?

 

[onlyzombiecat]

Because it was there would be my guess.
I think it is largely habit for some people to turn on a TV right away upon seeing one. My mom is like that. When she is awake there is a TV on in her house. It bugs her that we don't have TV reception at our house. To her it is a necessity. She even offered to pay for cable or satellite for us but we declined.

 

[MamaBug]

Kim my mother is the same way. They will all be in the kitchen but the TV has to be on for noise.....like the conversation is not enough!

 

[TudoBem]

Mine is the same way, too. It's like there's a need for the noise. Maybe more people are like this than I realized.

 

[Mama2Bug]

My mom is like that too. We recently did away with tv altogether- we can't even get local channels with an antena. We are very happy about it and have already felt the effects of no tv in a good way.

When I told my mom, she was horrified. She was like "OMG! How will you find out about the outside world?!"

I would have answered her sooner, but I couldn't stop laughing.

 

[lilyka]

I work in a couple of nurseries with TVs. In one it help the kids transition better. more of a distraction. there is one in particular who brings her favorite video. and yes the kids who were previously playing happily stop to zone but this child throws a fit every week and will stop the minute we put in her video. if she continues crying everyone else starts. there are 23 kids and 5 adults if we all remember we have a job. Also some of the kids in this class are there for three hours. I wuld venture to gues most of them are not acustomed to entertaining themselves for thre hours wothout TV. We also get close to n ap time for some of them and they need zone time to keep from melting down. we also need something to keep them busy while we rock the ones who are past the point of being able to calm themselves. it is a very stimulating environment. So at that point about 5 kids are breaking down, another five have starting hitting anything remotely close to them so, one person is maning the children at the video, one is watching the few that are playing, the grandmas each of t-3 kids on their lap and I am changing diapers. (22 diapers in 45 minutes and one on the potty which I now successfully remind him to point it down every time. thank you very much

hehehe )

In the other one they only put music/sing along type videos. And usually only for the last 15 minutes and/or 1st 15 mminutes. I htink there are two theories, one is the transition thing (also once we have the toys picked up it is nice to have something they can don while they wait for thier parents.) It also helps "last kid left every time" not notice so much. Another thought is that it is thier attempt to have some praise music at the beginning of the service like they do in big people church (seriously) I don't think the kids in our church nursery notice it as much as the ones in the first class I mentioned. But we don't provide them chairs and the TV is atatched to the ceiling. it is harder to notice. Come to think of it they knocked out that wall and that TV isn't there any more. (hey I never noticed that.)

but I don't think it is nessecary. especially when they are only in there an hour.

 

[JoyofBirth]

I have been in our church nursery the past couple months. Mostly so I can supervise my daughter. I don't like they way things are handled there, snack time in particular, but that's a different story. We have a 2 babies to 1 teacher rule. But even still, it gets hectic. There's no TV and we have a song "lesson" we do with the kids. I'm talking 3-thru-24 month-olds here. I really think that period of time is too long for most of these kiddos to be away from a parent. It's about 2 1/2 hours or so. And it is often nap time and snack time during that time frame. And it gets crazy. I wish we had a TV where towards the end we could put in a song video for a bit. And I could see where a video on might help draw kids in. The first 30 minutes of our class is so hectic because everybody's crying and the ones who aren't start because the others are. If you object, you might mention it. Or volunteer to go in yourself. when you're in there, you can supervise your child a little more. That's why I go in. This past Sunday somebody tried to give my daughter an entire animal cracker in her hand and she has just gotten the hang of eating a whole cheerio at once without choking. It's just really hard to take care of that many children, especially if that the only time they're away from their parents. My dd loves to play with her friends, but wouldn't even think of letting me leave her there.

 

[Alkenny]

I think people turn it on just out of habit also. My DH is that way

:. It can be off all day, but as soon as he's up he turns it on.

 

[lilyka]

Joy of birth - I would mention the cracker thing. Some kids do bigger with big chuncks and some do better with smaller ones. mine always did better with bigger chuncks because they had to chew it. with smaller chunks they would just try to swallow and end up choking. Also we started table food almost right away (7 months maybe?) and it still catches me of gaurd when a 12-18 month old doesn't know they are supposed to bite and chew. either because food in general is **** new to them or because they are still being spon fed or fed one bite at a time (not that there is anything wrong with any of that just different degrees of whats "normal") . Chances are the teacher is going off what was normal with her kids.

 

[Starr]

Ok, when DH is gone and I am home alone for a stretch I leave the TV on just for noise so I don't feel so alone.

Its just too quiet for me.

I have never seen a church nursery with a tv, a couple I noticed had an audio player. Mostly for tapes that have songs on them for the kids to sing along with. I agree that for them it might be more out of habit, some people think kids aren't content unless they have something to glue their eyes too. I would like to say just go over and shut it off, but that might be a bit too forward if your new. Sorry I can't help.

 

[WonderWild]

I work in the church nursery twice a month. Last Sunday we turned the tv on for the last 5-10 minutes. We had done our lesson and crafts on Jonah & the whale and didn't really have anything else to do. We were going to put in a Jonah & the whale video but when we found it we then realized it was a DVD and we only had a VCR.