I need to ask all you parenting types out there how much TV your child actually watches; and whether you feel that their behaviour afterwards is normal - or does it change?
We've noticed that after a prolonged episode of TV watching, Charlie is irritable; he complains, he flops, he shouts - he's really not keen to do anything else at all. We limit his TV watching these days to a bit in the morning to get him up and a bit in the evening as a treat - anything more and we have childzilla on our hands.
It's the same with video games - those endless little tricks one can play on one's telephone. Perhaps it's because his brain is active, generating adrenaline and various emotional responses while his body just sits there getting tense - who knows.
Either way we're not worried about his physical health too terribly much as the boy is addicted to dashing around on his bike at the moment. We're not overly worried about his imagination, as anyone who's listened to him play with his trainset can attest; but I am vaguely worried about something and just wondered if any of you have had the same sort of thoughts about it - and if so, what you're doing?
ta!
4 comments:
My 2 have some TV mid morning before lunch and then TV mid afternoon before dinner. I don't really notice a difference in them but I do try and monitor what they watch. My eldest who is 4 has started to want to watch shows like Scooby Doo and Ben 10 but I tend not to let him watch those as I feel he's still too young. We have Disney Junior which has some great shows that are interactive too so I let them watch them.
Oh yes - the days where we plop the kids in front of the tv for a few hours so we can do some improvement project always ends with a couple of catatonic/irritable children, ugh. They may watch Saturday morning cartoons to their hearts content, as long as they come to the table and have breakfast with us. And they may watch 15 minutes of tv after pjs and brushing of teeth. Of course a movie in its entirety is allowed once a week or so, or if it's with us. But yeah, detrimental effects those electronic boxes have on the wee ones :/
Our boy watches some TV while I make dinner and on Saturday mornings (but that is the children's channel - no adverts). If he watches some things - ie Wipeout (his aunt introduced it to him) he tends to leap from sofa to chair etc. If he gets too wound up he gets stroppier about going to bed but otherwise things like chocolate have more impact on his behaviour.
My son watches TV whenever he wants but he tends to always be doing something when he watches whether that's playing with his bricks, cars etc or jumping on our mini-trampoline...thus generally doesn't get irritated.
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