[TarrahLovesHuLo]

Someone in my other PR was asking this.

How much TV does your LO watch?

Ours is on all day, but they aren't always watching it. I am VERY interactive with them. We play, sing, do puzzles, crafts and other such things. When DD is watching TV I engage her with asking questions, or try to get her to answer their questions aloud.

What about you?

With my first, I didn't even turn the TV on until she was 9 months old. Hunter has loved TV since day 1, and I don't feel bad about it. Ther are so many great learning and interactive shows these days. TV isn't bad like when we were kids watching violent cartoons. lol

[jessanddane]

Emily is in daycare all day, so she doesn't watch anything there. When she gets home, we usually have the tv on, but we sit on the floor and play with her. Most of the time, its just DH watching TV. The only thing Emily has even taken an interest in watching is football. She actually stared at the tv when it would come on. We have a while til football season though.

Im the anti TV mom. I feel kids should do more then sit in front of a TV.

Kaitlyn was close to 2 before I EVER turned it on for her to watch. At 4 she gets 1 hour a day. 30 mins in the morning and 30 min before bed.

Kaileigh, I have never sat her down in front of a tv. Now, she is in the room when we (parents) watch some things but I just feel tv isnt for babies and should never become a baby sitter.

We spend the day outside, doing crafts, doing school. Im pretty much always on the floor with them doing something. I even do crafts with Kaileigh. Yesterday we did pudding paint. Its safe for her and if she eats it, oh well It gets messy but I love messy. It means their having fun

Also the AAP recommends children under two to not have any television.

[shockandawe]

Our tv is on pretty much the whole time we're home too, BUT Maggie isn't getting that much of it. She's too busy playing. We have them in the basement rec room and in our bedroom. She spends more of her time playing with me, playing with toys and we go out as often as we can with the grandmas. I spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen prepping breakfasts, lunches and dinners too - so while I'm doing that, she's busy investigating and trouble making where there is no tv to be found on the main floor.

She does have her favourite shows though. Bear in the big blue house is what we use in our bedtime routine and every day she catches maybe one of her other faves. Disney Junior seems to be the best for her. She likes Imagination Movers, Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins. The tv is never my babysitter, but it does give her a focus point that is quiet during bottles and sleep routines, and it gives mommy a respite from talking.

[AmandaEliz]

Ethan watches a little bit. We mainly save TV for crappy rainy days (or sick days) or to unwind before nap/bed. He's also a Disney Jr fan. We usually watch a little bit of a Disney movie before bed; it keeps him out of trouble if Avery is giving me a hard time about going to bed. I don't care if I use it as a baby-sitter so that I can get Avery to sleep without Ethan upstairs disrupting the process; she will force herself to stay awake to play with him. I put both kids down by myself most nights & get up at 0415, so it needs to be a quick, painless process. If 30 mins of "Cars" or "Toy Story" facilitates that process than I'm all for it.

Mike let Avery watch the same DVD in the car that Ethan was watching on the way up to PA. She is not a big fan of the car & having something to watch kept her from screaming the entire 3 hour trip. I certainly don't fault him for that. Kinda hard to do arts & crafts projects while she's strapped into the carseat.

[Ally-Mac]

TV is on here too. I see nothing wrong with TV. The AAP also suggested I BF, but I didn't do that. I figure why follow them this time!
Sydney is too busy playing and crawling/exploring/causing trouble to completely watch it, but she does have a few shows she like. She loves Sesame Street! Elmo, Grover and Cookie Monster she loves. Bear in the Big Blue House, Mickey Mouse and Special Agent OSO are also ones she likes.

[*BabyMaMa*]

We turn the TV on sometimes. It just all depends. If I'm watching Grey's Anatomy, and Leah is still awake...she'll be watching it also, but her attention span cannot really tolerate TV yet.

We do Sprout and Disney Jr sometimes throughout the day when she's eating snack, or just sick of her toys for the moment. She loves Mickey's Club House, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Dora, but again she doesn't sit still long enough to really watch the show. It's kinda like...oooo...cool toys on TV, now back to playing with Mommy.

I'm not anti-TV, as long as you're interacting and teaching your child things.

I didnt mean to offend anyone, I only stated AAP because if I had said I turned Kaileigh forward facing at 10 months (which I have not, so dont worry) everyone (most) would gasp and bring up APP and what they recommend. So I just thought I'd let everyone know since everyone seems to be saying AAP is so wonderful about car seat safety, I'd throw it out that its not recommended by them.

I have a child development background degree and background, and we followed "Foundations to the Indiana Academic Standards for Young Children" Which also says to not expose children at a young age. I spent several years working with children, and teaching parenting classes and classes for child care provides on what children should and shouldn't do. Im not judging anyone on what they do and I dont even follow some of the things I taught but I HAD to inform the parents of the risks associated with it. Thats your choice as a parent. I was just saying that since most people like to discuss the AAP in regards to what they chose to do, then I can give the fact they they recommend against it. I wasn't accusing anyone here of using it as a baby sitter, I just stated that it shouldn't be used as one. Their is a difference in letting them watch a set amount of tv, or sticking them in front of it just to do it and there is a big difference in them glancing at what you at watching.

Mandy, I use 30 mins of TV before bed for Kaitlyn to wind her down too since I also put two kids to bed by myself.

[AndiNW]

The TV is on here as well. Wyatt doesn't really watch. The odd time he sees something, squeals, then tries to climb up to the TV, but other than that he doesn't watch. DD (5) watches TV, but she goes non stop and we use it as down time. As for a babysitter - Yep! Before Wyatt was born, DD would get up on Saturday mornings and watch TV for a bit while DH and I were still sleeping. TV vs. Sleep - TV won!

My main concern is what is on TV. DD is great, she only watches Treehouse. There are "no commercials" (except for this portion is brought to you by....), and she still watches Dora, Diego, Backyardigans, Cat in the Hat, etc. We do watch American Idol together and I already see the impact of commercials. So as both kids get older, I think we'll have to be very diligent about exactly what they are watching.

[Daffodil]

Our tv is hardly ever on during the day. Usually we only watch tv after she has gone to bed. It used to be on when I would pump but that stopped several months back.

[sweetliberty]

Our TV is on very little actually. I never turned on while he was awake until recently and now I watch the news in the morning. The only other time our TV is on is when I put on Baby Signing Time. He doesn't always pay attention to it and that's fine but we also got it so we could easily learn the signs to teach him.

My husband and I aren't big TV watchers anyway, and when we move in a couple of weeks we're not even going to have cable at all and I probably won't miss it.

[shockandawe]

Originally Posted by KaiX2Momma

I didnt mean to offend anyone,

I completely understand, and want to assure you that I personally was not offended. You and I agree on most things I think. But I did want to be clear that there is a difference between letting the tv parent and letting it be background or used for a purpose, which you more eloquently explained in the last post.

I also didn't want others to be afraid to participate in healthy debate. I find that whenever television is brought up as an evil doer in society, I think of the movie demolition man. Not the content and the violence of it, but the other extreme in a society where even physical contact is disrupted by technology. At some point we need to value part of television and it's programming for it's artistic merit. In fact children's programming (now that I'm watching it more often than I ever did before) can arguably be called some of the most artistically advanced and provocative mediums of our time. I think that's fantastic. In no way am I referring to reality tv programs or do whatever you will for $ shows. That's just plain gratuitous, but story based programming, whether violent or not, still has a real value.

[Hollybear]

Originally Posted by *BabyMaMa*

We turn the TV on sometimes. It just all depends. If I'm watching Grey's Anatomy, and Leah is still awake...she'll be watching it also, but her attention span cannot really tolerate TV yet.

We do Sprout and Disney Jr sometimes throughout the day when she's eating snack, or just sick of her toys for the moment. She loves Mickey's Club House, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Dora, but again she doesn't sit still long enough to really watch the show. It's kinda like...oooo...cool toys on TV, now back to playing with Mommy.

I'm not anti-TV, as long as you're interacting and teaching your child things.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse annoys the crap out of me now, so we only do 1 episode a day....and the only time she truly pays attention is when the Hot Dog dance comes on. It's like 24 minutes I think, which gives the dogs time to eat (Sophie tries to eat their food otherwise) and me to unload the dishwasher without her trying to climb in.

We honestly haven't had the TV on too much lately. We DVR everything because if we tried to watch "our shows" when she was awake, we would miss half of it from her yelling at her toys (being excited) or her being excited over the dogs....haha

[mommytokem]

We don't have cable so the only TV our kids watch are dvds or Netflix that way we can really monitor what they watch and no commercials, I don't let them watch much unless they are sick or they really need calm down for a bit and every once in a while for rest time. I do use it as a baby sitter if I need to get something done and they can't help with it, but even that has become less and less lately. Dh on the other hand would let them watch movies all day long.

[Wren]

I started watching a lot of TV during maternity leave because of Stella's colic. I literally couldn't ever put her down, so it was one of the few things I could do for hours on end while standing up and rocking her. I still probably watch 2 hours of TV a day as something to half watch while I am cleaning or preparing dinner. So, Stella has been around it a lot but not paying attention. She sometimes watched football with her dad. I also have watched Signing Time a few times with her, and a few youtube videos. She really likes Whip My Hair, even though she doesn't have any hair.

[Karlie]

I don't watch any tv myself unless the kids are in bed, because they would just annoy me too much that its not worth it. I do let Noah watch Nick Jr in the mornings while I'm doing breakfast/getting ready to go out because if I didn't he'd want to go outside and in the evenings if Luca is being a pain to get to sleep . Luca doesn't really watch it, more glances at it occasionally while he's playing. I'm a single mum for three weeks out of every four and I definitely use the TV as a babysitter sometimes in the situations like Amanda described.

[Jule'sMomInOR]

Sometimes when I'm absolutely out of ideas for more games to play with Juliana or just simply exhausted, I turn on a Baby Einstein video. She does pay attention for maybe 15-20 minutes and she seems to love it.

Occasionally DH and I watch tv, maybe 2 shows per week, and she's awake with us. She really doesn't pay attention to it, though. We're usually sitting on the floor with a toy while it's on and she ignores it while I can only half pay attention to it, but I don't have the luxury of being able to put her to bed and watch tv so that's the best I can do.

[Jule'sMomInOR]

I'm also not looking to start a debate or anything, but I thought this article was interesting:

TV for Babies: Does It Help or Hurt? - TIME

[Bridgett_H]

We don't have cable either, but Jr. has a Nick Jr dvd that he absolutely loves. It's too long for him to really watch it, but he'll watch a couple of episodes off of it. I usually put it in in the morning when I'm doing breakfast dishes, and let him watch a little, and I leave it going while we go swing or whatever, and he'll watch a little bit more when we come back. I don't think watching cartoons really hurts anything at all, but he just doesn't have the attention span for it.

[AndiNW]

Originally Posted by Jule'sMomInOR

I'm also not looking to start a debate or anything, but I thought this article was interesting:

TV for Babies: Does It Help or Hurt? - TIME

I think this sums up how I feel:
"If you absolutely need a break to take a shower or make dinner, then the risks are quite low. But if you are doing it because you think it's actually good for your child's brain, then you need to rethink that, because there is no evidence of benefit and certainly a risk of harm at high viewing levels."

Read more: TV for Babies: Does It Help or Hurt? - TIME

Interesting article.