TV Viewing

This side we dont have set rules as such. There is times that she watches more than others. When she is ill I even go as far as hiring some dvd's. Put her on the couchs under covers ect. But she is usually fast asleep quite quick.

When she was 2 and couldnt fall asleep we could put the same George the monkey dvd on and before 5 minutes was up she was fast asleep.

I do tend to use the tv a lot when I am studying and specially during exam times. But it is more background noise for her as she plays with all her stuff around it. Otherwise she says it is too quiet. Should really change that to music.

With the renovations we are doing in the house we bought our tv is still in the box downstairs for the last 3 months. Yip no tv for 3 months and that over holidays and to be quite honest not much missed. (thank goodness for tv on demand for shorty. ;-) Yip but we soon realised we dont need all those shows ect and we are now making plans to rather put music on and not have the stupid tv on the whole time as background noise.

I'm really sorry you feel that way as I really tried to word it as to not offend as I was not talking about children who do actually have ASD. I have just read over all my comments (2 to Fiona, 1 to aquarius and the last one to you) and to me they don't appear generalised, infact I think I was quite specific in stating I was not referring to all special needs children, that these children I was talking about were only suspected of having ASD but did NOT have it... again I do not think autism is in anyway caused by TV at all.

nope your right we don't... I am a little confused about what we disagree on though??

I understood what you were saying freckle. I know some teachers who have kids here in NZ who don't know their last name, have never really been anywhere outside their homes etc. Sadly some kids don't get any engagement at home. It is a very sad but true fact. I can understand how some kids with no engagement and 24/7 TV could initially exhibit autistic like behaviours without actually having the condition itself. I'm sure it is also true that for some individuals, too much TV can be detrimental e.g. epileptics fits are often triggered by it. I can understand how too many hours engrossed in it, especially if the person is right up close could possibly interfere with brain patterns but I'm very confident none of the Oh! baby kids fit into that boat.

Really interesting to see the variety of opinions but generally it sounds like most follow a moderation principle.

Hopefully this doesn't become a debate thread...eeek!

i dont get the whole eating in front of the tv thing myself... i think sometimes my kids do watch too much but never while eating! i suppose thats the rule in this house...

Yeah I don't like Elle eating in front of TV but to be honest, she eats way better if she does! In saying that she hasn't eaten in front of it for a few weeks now as we are trying to reclaim family time at meal times.

Bizzy - the only reason Jake watches it while eating, is cos he never sat still long enough to watch it and wasn't at all interested in it (which was great, til I thought I would need some uninterrupted time to BF) so I put his highchair in front of it. Yep, bad mum! But I really thought I would need him to be occupied by something other than me when Morgan arrived and I was BFing for 45mins at first. He also used to come home from daycare so shattered that it was good to have him entertained and happy while I got his dinner ready then started cooking ours while he was eating.
We will be doing "family meals" when Morgan is a bit older, but right now I have them both eating at about 5/5.30 which is far too early for DH and I.
If he didn't watch it while having breakfast, I wouldn't have been able to have a shower without him banging on the door on the mornings dh leaves early. Add a newborn in to the mix and I thought I'd be in pjs til lunchtime!    If other mums can shower and do their hair/makeup with a 2 year old and newborn with ease, they are far more clever than me!!

I got what you meant each time Freckle ,

Im watching Gilmore Girls on TV atm , just thought I would share

Chloe usually watches TV/has it going in the background in the morning, while DH and I get ready for the day. TBH she is usually following us around the house, but when we are doing boring stuff like getting dressed, DH shaving etc. she goes and plays in the lounge and dances to kiddies music on TV.

We don't usually let Chloe watch TV while she eats... but she has snacks (morning tea and afternoon tea) on a mat in the lounge and if the TV is on she watches. Occasionally if we aren't eating together as a family we let her eat her dinner on her mat in the lounge with the TV, as a special treat.

When she is sick she sometimes watches TV all day from the couch... it's either that or sit on the couch cuddling her and listening to her cry the entire day. Which I just cannot do, it breaks my heart!

But I think everything in moderation. As long as they are getting a lot of exercise and play and reading and other experiences, and aren't just glued to the box all day every day, I can't see much harm.