I have written before on my view on TV (less is best!) so I won’t bore you with all the reasons why I think TV needs to be limited for kids. If you are interested though, you can read the following:
- Study: TV May Inhibit Babies’ Language Development
- TV And Kids Under Age 3
- How TV Affects Your Child
To be honest I would like to think that we could do without a TV at all in our house, but there are times when I put the TV and the kids quieten down for half an hour or so, and I am very grateful for the quiet that it brings.
We have developed a roster system in our house to manage the competing needs of the children. Time on the computer, playing the Wii or watching the TV are treated equally as they are all sedentary activities.
The table above shows the roster that we currently have in operation. The child whose name (or in this example age) appears next to the day is allowed to choose which activity they want to do – Wii, computer or TV. If they choose TV they are also allowed to choose the program which they want to watch (within family guidelines).
The remaining children then need to agree how to use the available technology. Due to the spread of ages, it can sometimes be quite challenging for them to find a middle ground. But as their time is ticking away, they usually come to some form of compromise!
The TV roster changes regularly to take into account after school activities and ages of the children.
How do you manage the TV in your house or if you have decided to go without TV, how has that worked for you?
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We don’t have a TV at all, and I LOVE it!!! We don’t have any of those game console things either (obviously!), although we visited interstate rellies who have a Wii and I discovered the girls are amazingly good at it for such techno deprived people.
We do have a car dvd player that only comes out on long trips for mum approved dvds.
The computer is actually used as one of our home learning activities, but there are usually structured tasks or goals for using it anyway.
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maybe weekly doses of masterchef, the cook and the chef, and better homes and gardens is simply too much telly for a 3 and 4 yr old……. At least if that really did happen, my kids should be able to take over the cooking in a year of two…..
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We have a TV but don’t get free to air reception and do not have Foxtel either. So it is used for watching DVDs or the Wii.
I kind of like it that way because I can monitor what DVDs the girls watch and usually manage their viewing to suit what we are doing during the day.
We do not have a hard and fast schedule for TV but I have a strict not in the mornings rule for all electronics as it really messes up with getting ready for school.
Usually we are so busy during the week days that the girls don’t get time to watch TV anyway.
One thing I will say is that this week TV and DVDs have been a godsend. I’ve had Heidi sick all week and thus staying at home and then I got sick as well on so it was blissful to be able to put a DVD on for her and then nap on the floor beside her.
About Cath’s comment – we had a delightful young man over yesterday (4yo) and he wanted to play Masterchef with my girls. I think it was a little frustrating for him that neither knew what he was talking about. It was fun though as it kick started a great cooking game between the 3 of them.
Access to television is a slightly contentious issue in our home because our girls have problems socialising with their peers. Hubby thinks that watching TV shows their peers do would give them an opening into discussions they are currently excluded from. I figure we provide alternate avenues with current DVDs and there is no advertising and I can make sure the message they get from the DVD is one I approve of…. which makes me sound like a control freak.
googled tea cup biscuits and your was the first blog i came to…. thank you for clear instructions. then i clicked home and found your recipe for rocky road… tick. these two delightful treats will be made for ‘a fanciful twists’ mad hatters tea party. if you havent visited her blog do so!
smooches rosey
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We don’t have a hard and fast schedule, but we do have some parameters – like you, I count all “screen time” (computer or TV) as the same category. The rules are around content, length of time, and the priority of other activities. Usually, the girls (aged 4 and 6) end up not watching any TV / playing on the computer 3 out of 5 weekdays, just because we are busy doing other things. Any day they do get screen time, it’s limited to 45 minutes, unless it’s their fortnightly DVD movie afternoon (every second Sunday), in which case they’ll watch the 70 or 80 minute kids flick.
It seems to work OK and we are now starting to enjoy family viewing once a week or so of something like Mythbusters or a documentary (which the girls really like!)
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Thanks for sharing how you manage the TV in your house. I also had some face to face conversations about it last week too. A couple of people explained to me how they have no TV on the week days, but then have a liberal approach on the week end. I can see how as the kids get older and have more homework we could move to an arrangement like this.
Since my son started school this year, he hasn’t watched TV after school. He seems quite happy to play with his toys. Maybe he has missed them all day!!
Marita: I grew up without a TV and I understand your girls problem. I think if they watch DVDs at least they will know some characters and stuff. When I grew up in the 80s when there wasn’t as much for kids to watch until they were older. So I only had the problem of conversation with others when I was at high school. Not all the time though. I was better off not watching those shows (Neighbours/90210 etc) that others watched. I think you are wise to monitor what they see. I only let my son watch ABC kids- no adds, certain DVDs, and the odd show like Scrapheap challenge (he loves building things!) Kids are very impressionable and are better off with wholesome books anyway. They might be good influence for other kids – get them thinking of other things than TV!
I have a few friends/relatives whose kids mainly use Technology on the weekend. Particularly those who are a bit older.
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