Did you let your young children watch TV?

[TheSaint]

My daughter i about 14 months old. She might have watched 2 hours of tv in that time. Most of it World Cup soccer last year when she was 4 months old.

If she is playing around in the den while im watching, she will glance at the screen occasionally, but has no real interest now. When she was younger, the TV was like a magnet and she would do anything to see the screen.

[Johnny Rockets]

I let my kids watch TV when they were little because it was the cheapest babysitter I could find.

[TheSaint]

I let my kids watch TV when they were little because it was the cheapest babysitter I could find.

Yeah, it is, and ive got the kid by myself today thru Sunday...but my wife thinks it brainwashes them and would cut my balls off if i let her watch.

Check that, i think she took my ballz with her. She just wouldnt bring them home.

[Mattiekrome]

@ 14 months neither of mine cared much for TV. Now @ 3 and 5 years old, they definitely watch it more. Baths @ 8pm, bedtime @ 9pm, when they get in bed i'll set the TV timer for 60 minutes so they can watch Noggin/Nick Jr, Sprout, or a movie until it cuts off. Most of the time though they are out within 20-30 minutes. They'll watch sometime during the day, but would much rather make a huge mess with all their toys, play outside in 90+ degree heat, or color all over everything.

[bleys]

my kids aren't going to watch TV for much of their very young life..

[GritsRgreat]

I let mine watch TV all she wanted...

She just couldn't turn it on.

[j2sgam]

My kids watch it regularly, theyre 2 & 4. I dont think its too bad, I make sure they get out and play as much as we can. Theyd both rather play outside, but the TV helps in the AM getting ready for work and for the 20mins before bedtime....

[TheSaint]

my kids aren't going to watch TV for much of their very young life..

do you have kids already?

I will say, that before you are a parent you say all kinds of things you will and wont do...a lot of that flies out the window when the poo hits the fan.

In this case, we have stuck to our guns.

[Panthers_Lover]

Yes, I did ... and now ... now they're intelligent, caring, productive, job-holding, house-owning (one of them) members of society.

It's not necessarily a general question of do you let your young children watch TV, but if you DO let them watch, WHAT are they watching? May make a huge difference.

[Johnny Rockets]

Had I known that the d*mn Barney theme song would still cause me to wake up screaming in the middle of the night 18 years later, I would have thrown every TV in my house in the garbage.

[Hawk]

my kids watched tv, but I picked the programming

[bleys]

do you have kids already?

I will say, that before you are a parent you say all kinds of things you will and wont do...a lot of that flies out the window when the poo hits the fan.

In this case, we have stuck to our guns.

no.. I have seen much of what my generation has done with TV.. and plenty of studies have been done saying it's actually harmful to allow kids to watch TV pre-age 4.. (IIRC)

and I knew someone was going to raise that point.. I realize people give in often for some piece of mind. on this issue, I feel very strongly about it. I may give into a lot, but this won't be one of them.

I don't care if they watch it as they get older, but there's no need for them to become consumed before the age of 8.. I guess I always think of my cousins on this topic. They are extremely anti-social and all they WANT to do is play video games 10 hours a day.

there's more to life... better for them to grow without it and then become exposed to it than to grow with it and it become a crutch to be happy or waste time... I don't really know how best to describe this without everyone wanting to become overly technical on the subject.. I believe you get the picture of what I"m saying.

[Zcustom]

We never let my son watch any TV until the last couple months.

We only let him watch a couple hours on saturday mornings, ie saturday morning cartoons, every kid should have that.

Most of the time our (Direc)TV is on the sattelite radio station Reality Bites, he loves music. If we're watching TV he has no interest, unless it's Jeopardy, for some reason he loves that show

[88 Bronco]

Elmo video = kid occupied = I rub my naughty parts against my wife's