Fess up -- how much TV and McDonalds

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you are out of touch, but in a bad way. not having a television in the house?

I have a TV in the house. Two, in fact. I don't turn it on. My other family members love it. I am out of touch with reality TV and all the crap that passes for popular culture. I was always 'out of touch' even as a teen. It's done me nothing but good.

you seem out-of-touch weird to me. no offense. what do you talk about at the water cooler at work? how do you do small-talk? i.e, being completely ignorant with respect to pop-culture is indicative that you may just be a social oddball, and in most walks of life that is not going to be a good thing. depends on your profession I suppose.

My small talk consists of talking to people about their kids and their hobbies, and current events and the weather. I can talk football and college basketball. There are some people who talk about Glee and Dancing with the Stars and The Situation, but not me.

Do you talk about nothing but TV at the water cooler?

how do you watch college sports if there is no tv in your house?

PP here with no TV in the house. We don't watch college or any other sports. Didn't even know who was playing in the Superbowl this year (we use the Sports section of the WaPo to line the cats' litter box).

To that degree, we are out of touch. And we are out of touch re: TV shows too. Not a problem for us. We read; play board and other games; play cards; do things outdoors. Our kids do crafts, coloring, play games, dance to music.

It's not rocket science. People did it for centuries until about 50 years ago.

[Anonymous]

DCUM is full of santimonious pricks, primarily female.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is full of santimonious pricks, primarily female.

Amen, I'm just about about over this board. However, I'll probably stay because there are some gems of wisdom and advice. I
now have the mentality of getting a laugh from all the santimonious, over the top, uber competitive folks.

[Anonymous]

We do McDs rarely, but I'm kind of wondering how some families have TIME for TV when they WOTH..??? We get my son back from preschool aftercare (pick him up at 4:30) and then get home around 5:00 and he helps us walk the dog, plays with one of us while the other one gets dinner ready or hangs out in the kitchen, then it's dinner, then a bit more playing while clean up happens, bath time, story time (2 books usually) and BED at 8:00. It's all pretty back-to-back.

I guess it's a whole different ball game with older kids who are going to bed much later, but DS is almost 4 and I don't really know where we'd fit TV in.

Weekends are just as crazy. When he wakes up, he's HUNGRY, so it's morning and breakfast with music, morning routine (teeth, hair, etc), getting dressed and we are pretty much out the door. On Saturdays, we go grocery shopping, then lunch and nap, then a playdate with snack, home, dinner, bedtime routine. Sunday is church, lunch/nap, family activity, dinner, bed.

WHERE DOES THE TV COME IN? Seriously, no judgment, I just have no clue. My husband and I haven't watched a tv episode in 4 years (except when I was nursing on mat leave). We keep being like "oh, that looks interesting...." and then we fall asleep.

[Anonymous]

"We do McDs rarely, but I'm kind of wondering how some families have TIME for TV when they WOTH..??? We get my son back from preschool aftercare (pick him up at 4:30) and then get home around 5:00 and he helps us walk the dog, plays with one of us while the other one gets dinner ready or hangs out in the kitchen, then it's dinner, then a bit more playing while clean up happens, bath time, story time (2 books usually) and BED at 8:00. It's all pretty back-to-back.

I guess it's a whole different ball game with older kids who are going to bed much later, but DS is almost 4 and I don't really know where we'd fit TV in.

Weekends are just as crazy. When he wakes up, he's HUNGRY, so it's morning and breakfast with music, morning routine (teeth, hair, etc), getting dressed and we are pretty much out the door. On Saturdays, we go grocery shopping, then lunch and nap, then a playdate with snack, home, dinner, bedtime routine. Sunday is church, lunch/nap, family activity, dinner, bed.

WHERE DOES THE TV COME IN? Seriously, no judgment, I just have no clue. My husband and I haven't watched a tv episode in 4 years (except when I was nursing on mat leave). We keep being like "oh, that looks interesting...." and then we fall asleep. "

Home by 5:30 with the kids. They do homework and I get dinner on the table by 6:30. Eat until 7. Then the kids shower and finish any homework, play. We watch tv from 8 to 8:30 as a family before bedtime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I guess I am out of touch because I am shocked both at the amount of TV kids are apparently watching and the reactions of some parents that children are somehow being deprived if they don't get McDs and TV because they're part of the American culture. What a sad statement about how people characterize "our culture." My kids are 18 months and almost 4 and we don't watch TV, grown ups either. Both parents WOTH and we frankly all have better things to do with our time than watch TV. I am sure we will have family movie nights when the kids get older, and if TV is on at someone's house we roll with it, but honestly I can't imagine that I'm depriving my kids of anything by teaching them to entertain themselves while I make dinner rather than parking them in front of the TV. Same with McDs. Don't get me wrong - we eat out, we order pizza, and they eat some processed food during the week, but McDonald's? Yuck. Their food is nasty. I was raised with no fast food, my husband was raised with McDs every Friday night (and he loved it then) but we are both not interested in feeding our kids food from McDs. They have it (or similar food) on road trips, but we don't eat there when we have other options becasue we simply don't like their food.

And for those who think we're raising kids who are going to freak out and rebel - we had the same rules with my stepsons (although we opted for Wendy's on road trips, not McDs because their food is tastier I think), and they are both thriving in college and guess what? They still don't watch much TV and don't play video games, and yes they have girlfriends and plenty of friends. One eats freakishly healthy (way better than us) because he's a pretty serious athlete, and the other eats not as healthy as that, but not much fast food either.

This exactly. I'm the mom who was quoted earlier as saying that my kid watched Finding Nemo with her grandma once as evidence that I'm totally depriving her. McDonald's is just gross food. We go out to eat and we occassionally order pizza, but it would never ever occur to me to go to McDonald's for a meal. And we don't have a TV. We're just not a TV family. If my 3yo were at a friend's house and they were watching TV, I wouldn't remove her, but honestly I'd be kind of disappointed that we were wasting a playdate on TV. And yes, once when she was sick, she and her grandma had a movie night.

To those parents who say they can't "fill the day" without TV - seriously? I am happy that my kid makes up games to play on her own and is never bored. Parking them in front of the TV just seems like such a cop-out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I guess I am out of touch because I am shocked both at the amount of TV kids are apparently watching and the reactions of some parents that children are somehow being deprived if they don't get McDs and TV because they're part of the American culture. What a sad statement about how people characterize "our culture." My kids are 18 months and almost 4 and we don't watch TV, grown ups either. Both parents WOTH and we frankly all have better things to do with our time than watch TV. I am sure we will have family movie nights when the kids get older, and if TV is on at someone's house we roll with it, but honestly I can't imagine that I'm depriving my kids of anything by teaching them to entertain themselves while I make dinner rather than parking them in front of the TV. Same with McDs. Don't get me wrong - we eat out, we order pizza, and they eat some processed food during the week, but McDonald's? Yuck. Their food is nasty. I was raised with no fast food, my husband was raised with McDs every Friday night (and he loved it then) but we are both not interested in feeding our kids food from McDs. They have it (or similar food) on road trips, but we don't eat there when we have other options becasue we simply don't like their food.

And for those who think we're raising kids who are going to freak out and rebel - we had the same rules with my stepsons (although we opted for Wendy's on road trips, not McDs because their food is tastier I think), and they are both thriving in college and guess what? They still don't watch much TV and don't play video games, and yes they have girlfriends and plenty of friends. One eats freakishly healthy (way better than us) because he's a pretty serious athlete, and the other eats not as healthy as that, but not much fast food either.

This exactly. I'm the mom who was quoted earlier as saying that my kid watched Finding Nemo with her grandma once as evidence that I'm totally depriving her. McDonald's is just gross food. We go out to eat and we occassionally order pizza, but it would never ever occur to me to go to McDonald's for a meal. And we don't have a TV. We're just not a TV family. If my 3yo were at a friend's house and they were watching TV, I wouldn't remove her, but honestly I'd be kind of disappointed that we were wasting a playdate on TV. And yes, once when she was sick, she and her grandma had a movie night.

To those parents who say they can't "fill the day" without TV - seriously? I am happy that my kid makes up games to play on her own and is never bored. Parking them in front of the TV just seems like such a cop-out.

But why do you all have to be so damn judgmental? Just because some of us choose to spend time watching TV. Or we don't think McDonald's is "gross." Why can't you just accept that people have different preferences?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But why do you all have to be so damn judgmental? Just because some of us choose to spend time watching TV. Or we don't think McDonald's is "gross." Why can't you just accept that people have different preferences?

Because she is better than you and wants you to know it. This is the way of DCUM. Learn it, live it, love it.

[Anonymous]

We watch lots and lots of TV and we eat at fast food places a least once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I guess I am out of touch because I am shocked both at the amount of TV kids are apparently watching and the reactions of some parents that children are somehow being deprived if they don't get McDs and TV because they're part of the American culture. What a sad statement about how people characterize "our culture." My kids are 18 months and almost 4 and we don't watch TV, grown ups either. Both parents WOTH and we frankly all have better things to do with our time than watch TV. I am sure we will have family movie nights when the kids get older, and if TV is on at someone's house we roll with it, but honestly I can't imagine that I'm depriving my kids of anything by teaching them to entertain themselves while I make dinner rather than parking them in front of the TV. Same with McDs. Don't get me wrong - we eat out, we order pizza, and they eat some processed food during the week, but McDonald's? Yuck. Their food is nasty. I was raised with no fast food, my husband was raised with McDs every Friday night (and he loved it then) but we are both not interested in feeding our kids food from McDs. They have it (or similar food) on road trips, but we don't eat there when we have other options becasue we simply don't like their food.

And for those who think we're raising kids who are going to freak out and rebel - we had the same rules with my stepsons (although we opted for Wendy's on road trips, not McDs because their food is tastier I think), and they are both thriving in college and guess what? They still don't watch much TV and don't play video games, and yes they have girlfriends and plenty of friends. One eats freakishly healthy (way better than us) because he's a pretty serious athlete, and the other eats not as healthy as that, but not much fast food either.

This exactly. I'm the mom who was quoted earlier as saying that my kid watched Finding Nemo with her grandma once as evidence that I'm totally depriving her. McDonald's is just gross food. We go out to eat and we occassionally order pizza, but it would never ever occur to me to go to McDonald's for a meal. And we don't have a TV. We're just not a TV family. If my 3yo were at a friend's house and they were watching TV, I wouldn't remove her, but honestly I'd be kind of disappointed that we were wasting a playdate on TV. And yes, once when she was sick, she and her grandma had a movie night.

To those parents who say they can't "fill the day" without TV - seriously? I am happy that my kid makes up games to play on her own and is never bored. Parking them in front of the TV just seems like such a cop-out.

That's because you have one child who's a girl and young. My nieces don't "need" TV either. They also have never, in my observation, needed to be told to calm down and stop tearing around the house. You really can't understand what having three boy age 5 and under is like. Why don't you parent my kids for a week? You might see the utility of TV.

[Anonymous]

Wow -- I have an incredibly active toddler girl, and I'm surprised that you'd generalize like that. My girl is TOO busy to sit down in front of the TV, so we don't watch it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow -- I have an incredibly active toddler girl, and I'm surprised that you'd generalize like that. My girl is TOO busy to sit down in front of the TV, so we don't watch it.

When do you get a break from playing with her?

[Anonymous]

I don't give a shit what any of you do. You're still not better than me.

[Anonymous]

I just cannot understand not having a tv in your house. This is 2011.

[Anonymous]

OMG! I can't believe this is 11 pages long. Here we go...

When we lived in the States, we got fast food once or twice a week, depending on how my day went (if I get off work late). Overseas (currently in the Middle East), we get McDonald's once a week (mainly on Fridays -- first day of our weekend), but McDonald's here is not as convenient as it is in the States -- if they had a drive-thru that was closer, we'd probably go more. Regardless of where we live, my kids generally eat healthfully despite the fast food.

TV: Like a previous poster, I don't monitor the TV. As long as they do well in school, get ready on time, etc., they can watch as much as they want. TV watching usually goes in waves around here -- they'll watch all day one day, then play all day the next day. They have full days at school. They love to read books. My son (who likes TV more than anyone), loves math and plays a lot of imaginary games. I can't complain!