babies watching TV

[rpanic]

Before my wife and I had our son we said we would not let him watch TV much. Now I find myself letting my 15 month old watching PBS for like 4 to 5 hours a day. I feel kind of bad, is it ok to let the TV entertain him for so long out of the day? He seems to really like Sesame Street, Word World, and all the other kid shows. It's not constant TV watching just filler between my working, and our playing/hanging out he watches it for like 30 to 45 minutes at a time.

 

[FDF12389]

Dude spongebob is were its at, get your kid cable.

 

[SpunkyJones]

Just stay away from the Boo-bah's, they will melt your brain. Seriously.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

We try to limit to 2 hours per day. Some days they get more, some they get less. At one point we realized we were in a similar position that you describe. We cut them back over a week or two, and they were fine. For example, no tv in the morning (I would let them watch PBS while I got ready for work), only 1 movie a day, no more then 2 after school shows, etc... We're pretty lax on Sat mornings though... I like watching cartoons with them

Kids need unstructured play time, where they are actively engaged. A good day care can actually benefit the child's social and imagination play.

 

[sdifox]

better not... spend time doing stuff with the kid...

 

[Kelemvor]

4 to 5 hours? Jeez that's a lot.

My daughter watches one or two episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse during the day. Then sometimes we'll put in a disney movie at night if she wants one but that's like once a week.

 

[Modeps]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...y&keyword1=kids+and+tv

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: rpanic
Before my wife and I had our son we said we would not let him watch TV much. Now I find myself letting my 15 month old watching PBS for like 4 to 5 hours a day. I feel kind of bad, is it ok to let the TV entertain him for so long out of the day? He seems to really like Sesame Street, Word World, and all the other kid shows. It's not constant TV watching just filler between my working, and our playing/hanging out he watches it for like 30 to 45 minutes at a time.

I have a kid the same age. She likes PBS/Disney and watches about the same amount as your son. I feel guilty sometimes about letting her watch that much TV. Now that the weather is getting nicer, she'll start to play outside more.

In between her favorite shows she uses her crayons to scribble on the wall.

 

[Xavier434]

All I know is that I have met a fair amount of kids since one entered my life almost 4 years ago. He is my stepson and is almost 5 years old now. He has been in a daycare since he was about 10 months old. The biggest difference I have noticed is that the kids (including the ones who are just over a year old) who end up going to the daycares which act like preschools behave much better, display much more interactive and social skills, and are just generally smarter. I imagine this carries on into grade school and beyond.

So, if you are not planning on putting your child in a school like this then I would recommend at least spending more time with him making sure he is involved in more activities which are both interactive and educational instead of just being educational like those shows on TV. You also might want to consider exposing him to more group settings with other kids his age once or twice a week. They have good groups out there for this sort of thing. You just need to dig a little.

 

[rpanic]

Originally posted by: SpunkyJones
Just stay away from the Boo-bah's, they will melt your brain. Seriously.

I saw those Boo-bahs, I thought they were some creepy product of some gay guy on acid.

I mostly let him watch the educational shows on PBS and Skooby doo on cartoon network.

 

[jersiq]

Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude

Kids need unstructured play time, where they are actively engaged. A good day care can actually benefit the child's social and imagination play.

:thumbsup:

We limit to 2 hours over the course of two days for our 2 yr old and 14 mnth old.
Sometimes it's unavoidable, and things do have to get done, and it is easy to put a child in front of the TV. The potential for a problem is when it becomes the norm, rather than an emergency band-aid.

 

[pontifex]

my sister and mom (when she watches the kids) have the TV on constantly for her kids. They watch Noggin, the channel with lots of educational shows for kids. My niece is getting close to 3 years old. She seems to run around a lot so its not like she sits in front of it all day. She loves to go outside too. My nephew is less than a year old and he doesn't really watch it except if something cathes his eye. he's too busy crwaling or walking around.


of course, my sister is a terrible mother any way you look at it anyway, so I think TV is the least of our worries.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Originally posted by: Modeps
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...y&keyword1=kids+and+tv

i was just about to link this thread.

 

[xochi]

Noggin and Sprout have some good programming.

 

[rpanic]

He gets to go to the park every day and a sometime I go to the mall and let him play with other toddlers in the play area. He has taken over everything, our whole place looks like a dozen kids live here. He is very social and is great when we take him to restaurants. I don?t want him to go into any sort of preschool until he can talk well enough to tell me what?s going on; we are paranoid of letting others watch him. Just the TV thing is making me feel bad I am going to cut it back a bit.

I will check out the link.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: rpanic
He gets to go to the park every day and a sometime I go to the mall and let him play with other toddlers in the play area. He has taken over everything, our whole place looks like a dozen kids live here. He is very social and is great when we take him to restaurants. I don?t want him to go into any sort of preschool until he can talk well enough to tell me what?s going on; we are paranoid of letting others watch him. Just the TV thing is making me feel bad I am going to cut it back a bit.

I will check out the link.

It sounds like things are going pretty well for you. Raising kids at that age is kind of like following the food groups. If you want best results you got to make sure they get a variety of skills. If you are going to cut out some TV then I recommend you spend a little time thinking about what your child might be lacking and provide some activities to fulfill that need. For instance, how much time does he spend per day doing something artistic related even if that "something" is just scribbling on some paper with crayons? Or how about more reading time with books that inspire his mind in a different way such as pop up books?

 

[Sphexi]

It's nice to say that you'll do stuff with them instead of TV, but the reality is sometimes you can't. I'm at work 4 days a week for 11+ hours a day, I play with the kids when I get home but not for too long before they have to go to bed. Also, it's winter and cold/rainy, I don't really want them spending a lot of time outside, they were already sick once this year and that was enough for us.

They really don't watch much of the mind melting crap though, my 22 month old absolutely adores Pocoyo (I think it's great too), so she watches a lot of that, but they're only 5 minute episodes so it's over quick. Generally we just put the TV on to a channel with something halfway decent, then she runs around playing with toys, stopping now and then if there's music playing to dance to it. We leave it on Fairchild, a Cantonese channel we get here, just to give her more exposure to that as a lot of my wife's family only speaks Chinese, and we'd like her to be bi-lingual.

 

[QED]

I'm in the same situation-- having an 18-month old who loves watching Barney.

I read about a "research study" (of all places, in a football sports column, ESPN's "Tuesday Morning Quarterback") that tried to link watching TV to autism rates. Apparently, autism rates rose in areas where cable TV subscription rates were higher in the early 1980s. The thinking is that, the first few years of life are critical for brain development-- synaspes are still forming and making their connections-- and somehow the use of bright and/or jarring audio and visual images is somehow stunting that growth.

I don't know if I buy it though. It turns out the researchers were just statistitons without any particulare medical expertise. I am still somewhat cautious with my child's TV watching, but mostly for other reasons.

 

[dainthomas]

This thread reminds of the morons I see with TVs in their minivans. If your kid requires a movie for an 11 minute trip to the post office, then they either have some serious inherent mental deficiencies or you're a complete failure as a parent. Buy 'em a freakin' book or teach them how to sit quietly for longer than 20 seconds, losers.

 

[GasX]

TV is simply not an option for my 2 year old until late in the day. I don't care what is going on, we just don't turn it on until after 6pm. Typically he gets milk and 1 oreo cookie at about 6:30 every night and watches one of his DVDs for up to an hour. I like the fact that there are no commercials, but the fact that he watches the same ones over and over is a bit of a drag.

 

[Bryophyte]

That seems excessive to me. One or two half-hour shows 'babysitting' the kid while mom or dad is busy making dinner or something isn't too bad, but eight to ten half-hour shows every day is just too much time spent sitting and staring. How does your kid respond when you have a day with no TV at all? Does he throw tantrums when you say "no tv"? When my kids were small, they seemed to benefit from a week or so of "TV timeout" at least monthly, where they were unplugged from all electrical devices entirely (no TV, videos, electronic games, etc). Their dispositions would dramatically improve and it didn't kill them.

 

[jjones]

When our daughter was very young, we let her watch tv probably an hour a day on average. She's just hitting seven now and while we do not regulate her tv habits (no need to), she still watches only about an hour average per day. We're lucky though. She's always liked drawing, coloring and crafts, so she usually keeps herself busy with that kind of stuff when she doesn't have outside activities.

I'd say 4 - 5 hours is too much, but it may not be so bad if it's broken up the way you describe. I'd still try to find other activities for your child.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: tw1164

Originally posted by: rpanic
Before my wife and I had our son we said we would not let him watch TV much. Now I find myself letting my 15 month old watching PBS for like 4 to 5 hours a day. I feel kind of bad, is it ok to let the TV entertain him for so long out of the day? He seems to really like Sesame Street, Word World, and all the other kid shows. It's not constant TV watching just filler between my working, and our playing/hanging out he watches it for like 30 to 45 minutes at a time.

I have a kid the same age. She likes PBS/Disney and watches about the same amount as your son. I feel guilty sometimes about letting her watch that much TV. Now that the weather is getting nicer, she'll start to play outside more.

In between her favorite shows she uses her crayons to scribble on the wall.

my wife and I let our 3 y/o watch about the same amount as well. She was watching Disney movies since about 1. My wife tries not to let her watch so much, but at the same time we have a 6 month old in the house and my wife goes pretty much bonkers by the end of the day between the two of them. Playing outside is a terrific break from that routine, so toss your kid(s) outside and let them have at it.

 

[Greyd]

This reminds me of the time that I read an article somewhere that hinted at the possible connection between TV watching and ADD type of behavior. I dunno how legit it was....

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
It's nice to say that you'll do stuff with them instead of TV, but the reality is sometimes you can't. I'm at work 4 days a week for 11+ hours a day, I play with the kids when I get home but not for too long before they have to go to bed. Also, it's winter and cold/rainy, I don't really want them spending a lot of time outside, they were already sick once this year and that was enough for us.

They really don't watch much of the mind melting crap though, my 22 month old absolutely adores Pocoyo (I think it's great too), so she watches a lot of that, but they're only 5 minute episodes so it's over quick. Generally we just put the TV on to a channel with something halfway decent, then she runs around playing with toys, stopping now and then if there's music playing to dance to it. We leave it on Fairchild, a Cantonese channel we get here, just to give her more exposure to that as a lot of my wife's family only speaks Chinese, and we'd like her to be bi-lingual.

Most people are in the same boat. This is why it is best to suck it up and pay the extra cash to put them in a quality daycare which educates them and fulfills their interactive and social needs as opposed to leaving them with family or a sitter who is around just to keep them safe. It does wonders for the child.