How young was your child when you allowed them to watch TV?

[mstrohm]

I am doing a blogtalkradio show (at BlogTalkRadio.com/markstrohm) and will be talking about the affects of TV on Children.

I would love to know how old your children were when you began to allow them to watch TV. My children were between 2 and 4 when we allowed them to watch certain videos.

 

[TCat]

I have to fess up, I used to put my baby in the swing in front of the TV with Baby Einstien videos on so that I could get things done around the house. My DD is now 6, we have discontinued TV altogether, although I miss is and still watch Hulu, and we still put in movies several times a day.
I like to control what we allow into the home, I thought we'd save $ by cancelling cable but alas we rent and buy so many movies the $ is about the same. Still my kids aren't watching comercials and are not being told that one should be sexy at aged 7 sooo.

 

[TravisD]

Like TCat, my wife and I let our kids watch tv right out of the womb I'll be the first to admit it's not the best thing for them and in a lot of cases not good at all. We have always tried to only allow decent rated g type stuff for the most part. My son is 4 and my daugter 3 and for the most part they don't really like TV all that much. They watch Dora and Nihau Kailan... and a little Tom & Jerry. Kids always seem to imitate what they find interesting on TV so that's where we have to be careful. If the TV were to disappear they probably wouldn't care too much... The computer on the other hand... well that's a whole different story

 

[Singermom]

I sense a trend here...

I remember my older daughter's face the first time she saw the video for Shania Twain's "I'm Gonna Getcha Good". She was captivated! She was also about 4 months old. She would also watch "Knight Rider" with my husband while I made dinner when she was about 2 months old.

She is 7 now, LOVES books, is an advanced reader, is doing incredibly well in school, and hardly watches TV at all. She has more scripture memorized than a lot of adults...me included...and tries to live it.

We have taught her and her younger sister (who is 5) to like things because THEY like them...not because all of their friends like them. As a result, while they like "Hannah Montana" and "Ni-Hao Kailan", they do NOT like "Dora the Explorer" and the Jonas Brothers.

...and they still like "Knight Rider", but still watch it WITH us.

 

[CrystalBrooke]

I let my daughter start watching Nick Jr. shows when she was about 1...she loves all the colors and sounds. I'll admit it, I let the TV babysit while I cleaned or cooked. She loves movies and TV now, (she's 4), but she also loves books, going outside, toys...she doesn't have an unhealthy relationship with the TV. Thanks to Dora, she was counting to 10 in spanish at 18 months.

 

[jgonz]

We have the tv on all day long~ but it's mostly background noise. Every once in awhile someone will actually sit down and watch an entire show, but nobody sits and watches tv for hours. Also, when whoever is "watching" tv, they're also doing something else too, so it's not mindless staring at the tv.

 

[CrystalBrooke]

I like to watch tv when I'm folding laundry

 

[illudium_phosdex]

I'd read when I was pregnant with my first that kids shouldn't watch TV too much until they turned at least two. It kind of helped that until they were 3 and 4 respectively, we couldn't afford cable and couldn't pick up any channels with an antenna where we were. We did borrow DVD's from the library occasionally but the selection was pretty small with us living in such a small town.

I don't know if keeping them away from it helped or not. Now that we have cable, they are pretty addicted and would sit in front of the tube almost all day if I let them. I do put limits on them though. They are each allowed to choose one 30 minute show in the morning and then if there is time, they get to watch a little after school. I do let them watch the Saturday morning cartoons too and that's a couple of hours on Saturday.

Their dad is addicted too. The only time it goes off is when I'm here alone. And sometimes even then, I leave it on because, like Crystal, I find folding laundry as well as a few other household chores a lot less tedious if I'm watching something on TV.

 

[Jilly123]

We've also let our daughter watch TV pretty much from a few months old. I'd put on the Discovery channel while I cooked. We often have TV on as background noise because I forget to switch it off (usually on the Home Channel). Our daughter is now 4, almost 5 and is honestly not very interested in TV. She'll watch things like Dora, Charlie and Lola and there are some great educational shows on the BBC kids channel here that we let her watch, but she would rather read books, do puzzles or be playing outside.

I think when parents get overboard strict about TV it can have the opposite effect on the child...it actually becomes an issue. I know dozens of children whose parents refuse to let them watch any TV, but as soon as they go anywhere there is a TV the kids are totally mesmerized. I think it's all about balance. Having said that though, although I have no problem with children watching TV from very early on I think it is our responsibility as parents to carefully monitor what our children watch. I definitely don't let my daughter just watch whatever happens to be on.

 

[jesusmyhealer]

As long as parents carefully monitor what the child is watching there's no big deal.
My daughter watched Baby Einstein DVD's not long after she was born & she spoke at 6 months of age & by 12 months of age she was very fluent that my doctor told me she was gifted. Now my son did not watch tv at an early age & he spoke quite late but I guess that could be a male thing
We always credit the Baby Einstein DVD's for our daughter's early vocab.

 

[Singermom]

As long as parents carefully monitor what the child is watching there's no big deal.
My daughter watched Baby Einstein DVD's not long after she was born & she spoke at 6 months of age & by 12 months of age she was very fluent that my doctor told me she was gifted. Now my son did not watch tv at an early age & he spoke quite late but I guess that could be a male thing
We always credit the Baby Einstein DVD's for our daughter's early vocab.

According to my mother, it could be a second child thing. My second daughter didn't speak as much or as early as her older sister, mostly because the older one would do the talking for both of them. However, now the younger one is the "spokesperson" for both of them!

 

[NiamhDhabolt]

We have the tv on all day long~ but it's mostly background noise. Every once in awhile someone will actually sit down and watch an entire show, but nobody sits and watches tv for hours. Also, when whoever is "watching" tv, they're also doing something else too, so it's not mindless staring at the tv.

This is the same at our house. We like the background noise.

We started letting our oldest watch the SigningTime DVDs daily from birth, and also signed with/to him. By 12 months or so, he had a vastly HUGE vocabulary in sign language (he also spoke). There were times when he knew more sign than us, the parents, lol. We had planned to do the same with our daughter, but we're in the middle of moving and all our DVDs have been in storage for a few months now. We still sign TO her though.

I've seen studies and articles say that you're not supposed to expose children under two to TV, but I don't see much of an issue. Our son (aged 3.5 now) adores books (he's got TONS of them and we read together every single day) and play time... and while he's allowed to watch a few children's shows after dinner as a reward for behaving all day, he's not consumed by the TV. We also allow him to watch the Saturday morning cartoons/shows on PBS kids.

 

[BridgetsMom]

Our daughter is just two; we have not yet let her watch TV. We don't plan on introducing it for some time yet. There are too many studies showing that it (on average) is bad for babies/toddlers for us to want to have it in her life while she is so young.

 

[silence_dogood]

I am doing a blogtalkradio show (at BlogTalkRadio.com/markstrohm) and will be talking about the affects of TV on Children.

I would love to know how old your children were when you began to allow them to watch TV. My children were between 2 and 4 when we allowed them to watch certain videos.

We got rid of our TV when our children were 12,11,9,8, and 5.

We've since added two to our family and they've never seen a TV. Our fifth child, who was five when we got rid of our TV says that she doesn't even remember having one.

 

[ChildByGrace]

My son was 2 1/2 years when I first actively allowed him to watch tv (a DVD he was given for Christmas). Up until then I'd had the tv on when he was in the room with me but not the kids channels. He's only seen one program on the kids tv and he's now 3 and 3 months. I've never felt to need to have the tv on to entertain him-he has toys for that. I've never liked the idea that he is sat doing nothing.
My daughter is nearly 13 months and she has never been sat in front of the tv either. She does look at the tv if it's on but she's able to be distracted by toys.

From my personal point of view, I don't see what positive benefits there are for a pre school child to be watching to tv. Any tv that my son watches now is as a treat for good behaviour and it's usually a short DVD. And he is limited to once a week, if that. He recently went for about 4 months without watching anything at ours.

One other amendment is that my in laws will put the tv on for him when he goes round there-he only watches one particular programme