Anonymous wrote:Growing up the whole family watched TV every night after dinner. Conversations were best saved fur commercials or my Dad would be angry. I am not sure signing your kids up for activities or sending them out to play makes you a better parent.

I would not consider your dad a good parent based on this example.

Growing up the whole family watched TV every night after dinner. Conversations were best saved fur commercials or my Dad would be angry. I am not sure signing your kids up for activities or sending them out to play makes you a better parent.

I used to watch TV after school for a good 2 hrs while I did my homework from 4-6. I have two Master’s degrees. Your kids will be fine.

Anonymous wrote:It’s fine. We all watched TV growing up.

And before TV we told stories and went to plays all the time. TV is just plays on a screen.

Commercials and reality TV programming is bad for the brain studies show.
The sensory overload is disruptive to brain formation, causing ADHD to be aggravated. This occurs in adults as well, to a slightly lesser degree.

I personally think tv is a bad idea for kids. It’s preferable to have them helping to cook dinner, or playing together on board games or running around outside.
Tv is only for family time and limited to less than an hour a day. And when I say family. I mean the whole family, not just adult partner and the kids.

I don’t mind some tv, but if it’s bothering you- change it. When my kids have had too many screens, or too much scheduled time, they forget how to entertain themselves. That’s my concern with screens more than the content.

The skill of finding something to do needs to be practiced.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s a problem if it’s done together as a family and it’s not for hours and hours every day. It’s kind of sweet that your MSer, ESer, and DH have something they want to watch together!

Disagree. Its not kind of sweet, its lazy parenting.

How is it lazy parenting to watch TV with your children? OP said they are involved in sports and other activities. What's the problem watching TV with whatever remaining free time they have?

Its sad and limiting and definitely the easy way out. Kids dont relax by using screens. They relax with freah air, conversation, art or music projects, ways their brain can chill. TV is constant stimulation in lights and sounds. Its addictive. And if mom is noticing they do it every day despite her efforts to get them to do something else, that is problematic.

I cant believe you and others are honestly saying "i went to soccer practice for one hour, so there's now no harm in 3 hours of watching crap!" One hour of something else doesn't negate the harm of mindless tv.

It’s fine. I refuse to structure every minute of my children’s days. They are in school, have homework, volunteer work, and activities.

I decided early to just let the BE after that. Sometimes we have family game or movie night. When then were younger they could play the Switch on the weekends. They usually ended up rotating. TV, Switch, art, toys, going outside to play, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s a problem if it’s done together as a family and it’s not for hours and hours every day. It’s kind of sweet that your MSer, ESer, and DH have something they want to watch together!

Disagree. Its not kind of sweet, its lazy parenting.

How is it lazy parenting to watch TV with your children? OP said they are involved in sports and other activities. What's the problem watching TV with whatever remaining free time they have?

They do sports and activities. Play dates. Play outside, play in the playroom, dance around, draw, read, hang out with us in the kitchen, play in their bedrooms.

I think family TV time is totally fine -- great even.

It would bother me if it was every single day thought because I think habitual TV-watching can create a dependence on it. My family watched TV every night of my childhood often for several hours. As an adult I realized how limiting that is and it actually took me a while to break the habit so that I wouldn't feel a *need* to watch TV every single night -- I can skip it and read a book or play a board game or focus on a project I want to work on.

So I'd maybe see if you can set up TV nights and non-TV nights so that your kids don't get used to the idea that every single night is TV time. That's what we do. We have shows we like watching with our kids but we also have nights where we break out the board games or bake something or all lie around reading books.

It’s fine. We all watched TV growing up.

I think family tv time is better than separate screens (whether it is movies or games and chats). We were not a TV family but as the kids got older it meant we rarely watched anything together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s a problem if it’s done together as a family and it’s not for hours and hours every day. It’s kind of sweet that your MSer, ESer, and DH have something they want to watch together!

Disagree. Its not kind of sweet, its lazy parenting.

Its not lazy parenting. You think that having your kids do structured activities all the time so they just follow directions like a robot is better than watching TV sometimes with your family then you are dead wrong. Watching cartoons or movies or shows with your family is a way to relax for many kids and families. Don’t shame them for this.