Get your kids off TV

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car

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I stuck this in here as I thought it was a good deal.

I came across this wiki on how to get your kids off TV, theres a ton of related how-to's with kids that look useful. Most of it common sense, but sometimes we need the points highlighted.
 
Nail their feet to the kitchen floor (if it's wooden). They can help with the washing up which they never do. Locked all kids’ channels on Sky (8 & 11 year old). Can you ban the actual Simpson’s etc on Sky or go into the age limiter? Think it has a bad influence on their behavior. Can it be done?
 
You could also read this book :

Remotely Controlled: How Television is Damaging Our Lives

Aric Sigman.

There's enough in it to even get the adults off TV :)
 
Get your kids off TV
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I thought that this was a message to the parents of those irritating Billy Barry style kids that populate the Late Late Xmas Toy Show... :(

F. Kruger said:
You could also read this book :

Remotely Controlled: How Television is Damaging Our Lives
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Do I have to? Is it not on DVD...
 
Tuesdays and Thursdays are no-TV days in my house. This works well. Only having four channels is also a limiting factor.
 
MichaelDes said:
Can you ban the actual Simpson’s etc on Sky or go into the age limiter? Think it has a bad influence on their behavior. Can it be done?
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You could always switch the TV off and tell the kids that they are not to switch it on again?
 
we just don't let them wathc any TV. occassionally a DVD. Or perhaps a film everynow and then.

They get more than enough TV from when they visit friends houses and grandparents etc.

One pal of my son recently said to him that he didn't want to come around and play and that he didn't like his mother (my wife) because he wouldn't let her watch tv!!


Also only have an aerial.
 
I agree with this from Clubman "You could always switch the TV off and tell the kids that they are not to switch it on again?" In fact my kids are not allowed to turn on the TV nor to touch the remote. And like DGP 75 we control what they watch, either 1 hour of CBBeess at the weekend or a DVD occasionally. My niece and nephew hate my house because of this.
 
We don't allow TV on a 'homework night' (ie Mon-Thurs). It met with some resistance initially (esp DD1 who would watch paint drying if it was on the TV screen!!!) We persevered and now they don't even question it, and I've noticed they often don't bother turning it on the days they are allowed. In the summer they prefer to play outside now, but we still have to keep an eye on DD1 as she can slip back into her old ways. We instigated the ban because we felt that the more TV she watched, the more marked deterioration we saw in her behaviour. DD2 didn't seem to be influenced to the same degree, but maybe that's cos she's younger. They're 8 & 6, and I do not allow them to watch The Simpsons. Also had to ban Pop Girl recently.....was getting the whatEVERRRRRRRR attitude after only 1-2 shows!!!
 
3dolls said:
Also had to ban Pop Girl recently.....was getting the whatEVERRRRRRRR attitude after only 1-2 shows!!!
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Haven't seen 'Pop Girl' but this attitude worries me much more than old-fashioned Simpsons-style boldness. It seems to be prevalent on every cartoon aimed at girls, regardless of age.

I'm also shocked at how many of these cartoons aimed at the smallest of toddlers focus on who is 'popular' in school, who is in the gang, which of the girls gets the hunky guy etc etc.

Gimme Homer et al any day.
 
What a relief to hear some parents have a realistic approach to this. Recently stayed with nephew, his wife and two little ones for a long weekend and departed brain-damaged and pie-eyed Monday a.m. devising excuses for never, ever, staying over again.

Children (4 and 7) wake around 6.00am and immediately switch on t.v. (cartoon channel) and it doesn't go off (no.......seriously!!! :eek: ) about 9.30pm when they are put to bed. At one stage Dad nephew wanted to catch the sports-summary and there was a screaming-match (despite fact the children each have a smaller t.v. in each of 'their' bedrooms! Anything closer to hell I cannot envisage and these kids to my mind are devoid of any thoughts or ideas or initiative of their own.

I know its trite to say 'it was different in OUR day"' (I'm in my 50's) but it was. We made things (including carts with ball-bearing wheels and a bit of twine on the front to steer with); dozens of presents every Christmas for relatives (cushions, pyjama-cases, embroidered hairbands, handpainted notebook covers etc., etc.) and had part of the vegetable or fruit-garden we were responsible for maintaining (so we automatically learned horticulture from grandparents, parents, visitors etc.) as well as helping with 'real' maintenance tasks and - most importantly - reading!

There is an argument in some quarters that children 'learn' much from the internet and t.v. but I have never seen evidence of it and friends who teach describe themselves of merely doing 'crowd control' in many cases and being at their wits end to stimulate the children in their classes to anything resembling independent thought. Anything that gets children to engage with the real world is - in my view - extraordinarily important so congratulations to the OP for introducing this thread.
 
The thing that really bugs me is when you go into a childs bedroom and there is a TV, games console etc.

Do any of the parents that furnish their kids bedrooms with all that junk ever think god maybe that's why they don't sleep and that's why they can't concentrate and that leads to the boldness, bad school reports etc etc.

Or do the parents that put all this junk in a kids room just think about themselves and not having to entertain their kids after a hard days work?

Or is it just a display of money and no sense?

We work hard everyday, then we come home do all that needs doing and spend time with the kids. But bedtime is bedtime and time for sleep FULL STOP. This is when we get some time to ourselves, when the kids are in bed and asleep.

Seems to me that you can cut out the having to spend time with kids and save yourself a few hours in the evening by putting a child up to their power pads and letting them entertaint themselves or you can simply put them to bed in a room with no distractions. The latter is the one that works best for us and the kids in the long run but I guess some people or just a bit dim about this IMO!
 
First of all I hope noone who criticises TV spends too much time on the internet :)

If you ask me theres a fine balance. A childs' life should be fun and happy. Banning something can make it more attractive to a child. I would hope the child can be educated while growing up so as to become an adult who is capable of making his or her own rational decisions in life. If the kid is doing well in school and elsewhere and doing a sport then I dont see a problem with TV.
I found when I was growing up that many of the kids who were excessively controlled either had no social life and were boring (sometimes kids talk about their favorite TV shows to bond and make new friends, and music etc) , growing up into unhappy adults or else they had significant double lives of rebellion where they couldnt talk to their parents about their problems for fear of the overly strict atmosphere at home. (crisis pregnancy, alcohol etc)
 
There's a lot of talk of parents trying to limit their children's access to TV. Has anyone considering getting rid of it entirely? I've lived without a TV for several years now and I found that getting rid of it led to a definite improvement in my quality of life.

One of the biggest problems I found was that the TV would be left on in the "background", even when other people were present and everybody was engaging in a conversation. It is something I find enormously distracting now when I am in other people's homes and the TV is left on.

There are plenty of other distractions of course, but if I am spending time on the Internet, or on the telephone, it is usually more engaging and less passive than television viewing.

When I do eventually have children I've no plans to purchase a TV but I'm hoping that won't hobble them socially too much!
 
room305 said:
One of the biggest problems I found was that the TV would be left on in the "background", even when other people were present and everybody was engaging in a conversation. It is something I find enormously distracting now when I am in other people's homes and the TV is left on.
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Thats one of my pet hates too. I think TV at home can take away from quality time spent together in conversation. One argument I have heard is people have long days getting up at 6 am and dont have the energy to do anything except vegetate in front of the simpsons at 7 pm when they get home and I can see that point of view but I d feel left out of exposure to new ideas, popular culture and current events if I had no TV and the odd video with a glass of wine can also a nice thing. Also to miss sports would leave me totally out of the loop. I dont think the newspapers would fill the void considering the existing infotainment culture out there. I think therefore the important thing is to educate children to be responsible and prioritise the TV last and family life and real conversation first.
 
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