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I'm curious about people's TV rules for very young kids.

Recently some people (elsewhere) indicated that they allow TV only when their kids are *also* playing. If the kid stops playing, the TV goes off. This is the opposite of what we do... if the kid's interest flags, the TV goes off.

What do/did you guys do and why? (I'm leaving out my opinions till later, cause I want to see what you guys think before I say anything

We don't watch much tv. The occasional movie or documentary or 30 mins here or there. I would rather DS do something else. If it is on though it is to be watched, if he is playing I would rather him play.

We do one 30 min show before to get the boys to sit. Then, occasional movie nights. I found my older son at 2 (now 5), would fight me to turn off tv if on. I just stopped turning it on. I would rather they do something else.

My two never really sat still long enough. They had a couple of favourite shows but I never really had to set limits. Now they're 8 and 10 and are only just getting to the point where they'll sit through a movie. (Ah, the hidden blessings of ADHD). ;p

Very, very little for DS4. Preschool shows a video on Friday afternoons for the "extended day" kids, when Grandma is babysitting she'll let him watch a bit so she can get a break, but on average, I'd say, less than 60 minutes a week.

When he was younger,we were occasionally tempted to turn it on so we could get things done, but now he can generally find things to keep himself busy.

My kids (8 and 4) watch TV on weekends. Specifically, we let them get up at 7:00 and watch PBS while we sleep in. They typically watch 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday, but often some of that time is spent playing without really "watching." I still feel like it's too much, but DH and I really need the time on the weekends, and it's the best solution we've found.

Interesting so many comments about time. I *think* the source of the "only while playing" rule has to do with this focus on how much time a kid is spending watching TV... I think those parents somehow think it counts less if the kid is doing something else at the same time. Others have talked about using it as a way to get time off direct childcare.

I don't know how much time my older son spends watching TV. I know it's more than most people here describe. I've specifically stopped timing it and started focusing more on the hows and whys and whens. About 75% of his tv time is spent with both of us watching and not doing anything else, which I think is very rare...

We've had a specific problem which involved a kid who really can't entertain himself very well without 1 on 1 attention... and I've actually been using TV time sometimes to prepare things to help him LEARN to entertain himself (stuff that's just in his incredibly minuscule zone of proximal development, is my theory)

What rules do you guys make around the *quality* of TV time?

We have never owned a TV. It was a lifestyle choice, and I haven't regretted it, although I recognize that this extreme of a choice won't work for most and pass no judgment on anyone who enjoys a TV at home. It's just what we chose, and I still love not having a noise box in the house.

With the youngest, the access to inane entertainment started earlier thanks to cable Internet and Hulu, etc., but the two older kids survived their childhood without access to videos except by DVD on the computer once that technology arrived. But even with our youngest, watching a video had to be an active choice while sitting in front of a computer. I agree with you that only letting a kid watch TV while playing something else is actually setting them up to not be able to focus on a single activity.

We have a tv that was not watched for the first 21 months of my dd's life. We don't have cable. We started to watch tv as a family when dd was 21 months. She was ready to watch movies in one sitting as we found out soon. Since then, we have watched many movies together the first time. Dd likes to watch the same movie many times. So we let her watch on her own with us sitting for a portion here or there. Dd is 3.3 yo now and watches pbskids on Netflix by herself. Overall, we watch 3-5 hours of tv per week.

We allow DD to watch TV and if we let her she'd watch it for hours on end attentively (not something we allow regularly but when she's sick or we are it's happened). As is, TV is one of her few sources of native English speakers beyond myself and I definitely see her picking up a wider vocabulary from it, so I'm not one who sits in the TV is evil camp.

Like you, if she's messing around the TV goes off. I don't really understand the purpose of having the TV on if you're playing with another activity? It seems like it would be better to give your full attention to that activity than split it. Now, we do get a constant stream of questions during most shows but I see that as a different than actually playing with a doll or something.

As for content, it depends. Sometimes it's typical kids shows but other times we'll let her watch documentaries/science shows with DH. We also put on youtube videos of various sports that she would otherwise not get to see in person (e.g. ice skating, gymnastics etc).