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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
Tv before bed bad? How strict are you with 3 and under?
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Anonymous
| Husband gets home late from work everdAy. Relaxes and watches half Hour TV with kids at night, we argue about this but his way of gratreating kids before they go to bed. ANeon else, what time do youbturn it off? |
Anonymous
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My son is in day care all day (no TV), and watches a show when husband and I are making dinner. He may also watch a show after dinner, but that varies.
He goes to bed late, so TV time isn't right before bed. to me, it's total screen time and content of shows that matter. My son watches an hour a day. I know that might be a lot to some families but we are totally fine with this. He needs some time to calm down a bit after school and loves the new Wild Kratts show on PBS. |
Anonymous
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I have no problem with the half hour of tv in and of itself and like PPs I sometimes use it so I can get something done. Personally, though, if that was the only time my DH got go spend with the kids all day I would be annoyed if he chose to spend it in front of the TV. I know your DH is tired but there are plenty of mellow activities that require more interaction than TV. Why not have a snack and talk about their day? Or cuddle up with a bunch of books?
FWIW my DH would probably like to do this as well but I think he knows I would not appreciate it. I'm tired too believe it or not but I manage to entertain the kids without regularly resorting to TV. We both WOH and sometimes it's me who gets home later so he can't even try to claim a superior level of tiredness. |
Anonymous
| I have three kids, two of whom have ADHD, one that does not. Studies have shown that kids who have screen time within 1/2 hour of bed time take longer to get to sleep and don't sleep as well. There's something about the light that stimulates the brain. I'm not anti-TV by any means (I LOVE when the kids are occupied and I can have some time to myself or get something done) but I've noticed a marked difference in my ADHD kids and even a difference in my non-ADHD kid. As a result, we've instituted a rule that there's no screen time during the week and we definitely turn it off an hour before bedtime. Even DH and I don't watch it in that period. We do, though, have movie night on Friday and sometimes it's on right up until they go to bed. |
Anonymous
WE watch a LOT of TV. |
Anonymous
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Our twins (10 months) watch no TV and we shall endeavour to keep it that way until they are 2.
Our 8 year old now watches TV on weekends only and we try to limit it to one show/movie each day of the weekend. |
Anonymous
| TV right before bed helps calms my three year old down. Otherwise, he is bouncing off the wall before bed time. He gets one show and a snack, then happily goes to bed. I tried getting rid of tv before bed because of the studies that say it keeps them up, well, it made things worse. I SAH, so he probably watches a little more tv than I'd like, but he also does a ton of other outings during the day. |
Anonymous
| we have a no TV rule for the kids during the week. |
Anonymous
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DS (5) only gets TV (WETAkids or a DVD) on weekends, unless he's sick or some other special circumstance (today might qualify). Usually its 1 or two shows or one DVD. Thankfully he loses interest before too long.
DD is 15 months and gets no TV except when DS is watching. OT a little -- is anyone else bothered by how children behave in pretty much all live action TV shows, including Nickelodeon and Disney? It seems like the favored characters are snarky, whine and complain, and insult each other regularly. We have come a long way from Silver Spoons and the Brady Bunch. |
Anonymous
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DC is age three and watches no TV. None. We're probably on the extreme side, I know.
Even so, I would strongly encourage DH to read to the kids on the couch instead. Even if it's 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes, it's a much better choice than watching TV together each night. Reading is more interactive/engaging and obviously sets a better pattern for them to follow as they get older. Also, kids LOVE it when their parents read to/with them -- pretty much at any age. |
Anonymous
Marcia! Marcia! Marcia! |
Anonymous
This is us exactly. |
Anonymous
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We're sort of anti-TV. Didn't watch it before we had kids. Have a nice monitor we can watch movies on though.
As for the kids, our plan is for no TV/movies until at least 3 years old. Of course, they see it a little when we're not at home - and we don't make a big deal about it. |
Anonymous
| My two year old watches Dora and Diego before bedtime, so about an hour of tv time. It seems to help get her prepared for bed. She's not watching the whole time but we are in our bed changing jammies and winding down. As soon as we come home from daycare we work on an an art project, read some books and play a little so we haven't yet started to use tv in order to busy her while we are getting things done. She pretty much has our full attention when she is awake (one of us will cook while the other plays with her). She's still too young to read a book and expect to sit still. My hope is that as she gets older we will transition the bedtime routine from tv to books but I fear I may have passed the point of no return. |
Anonymous
| My son (3.5) watches a fair amount of TV. I'm trying to dial it back a bit, but I'm having hard time. My husband is gone Monday through Friday, so I don't have any help on the weeknights. I'll let my son watch a show or play with my iphone for an hour or so each night so that I can get dinner made/clean up/do dishes. His TV watching is usually done an hour or so before bed, as we do a bath and read books for quite a while before he goes to sleep. Again, I'd like to have him watching less, but I try to balance it out with lots of other engaging activities, particularly when my husband is home. |