Movies: If you DO USE them, at what age & how often?

[Aubrey]

I can't remember what the studies say. It's after 2yo that it's ok, right?

 

My olders watch something about 1-2x/mo. Little hasn't watched anything yet.

 

Ack. I meant to attach a poll. Oh well, just fill in the blank.

[In The Great White North]

Well, we waited longer than most (Waldorf influence I guess). We were also influenced by a neighbor's child who sang the Barney song incessantly for years and pitched fits to get to watch the video (the same video) several times a day. We had no children's videos in the house. The TV didn't go on til after they went to bed either.

 

We started on older movies (Disney classics, musicals, etc) when the youngest was about 8 (oldest 13). Last year, when youngest was 11, we started watching "educational" movies, like The 300 Spartans, Ben Hur, etc. that fit the curriculum, but were still old enough to have been produced under the old rules.

 

Dd(11), especially, really lives the movies. She talks about them, quotes them, sings the theme song, copies the actors, etc. It becomes the focus of her life for days. It has such a strong influence, I still have to be careful of what she watches.

 

HGTV and baseball games slipped in there sometime too. :001_smile:

[Kuovonne]

I'm probably in the minority here. I started trying to train my kids to watch tv in the mornings before breakfast when they were one year old. We also have a standing movie time at 5pm when I cook supper. Then the kids also get to watch whatever we (DH and I) want to watch that comes on before bedtime.

 

I figure that while tv and movies are not as good as interactions with a person, I am not willing to provide live human interaction before breakfast or when cooking supper, so I use the tv as a babysitter at those times.

[melissel]

Well, in my perfect world, we wouldn't own a TV at all, but unfortunately I've always worked from home, so we have used and still use TV as a babysitter more than I'd like. Even when my littles were babies, I'd use the occasional Baby Einstein video when I needed to keep them distracted for about 20 minutes. When my first was a baby, I'd come home from the morning at work and nurse her, and then have to pump for the next day's bottle. She'd watch through a Baby Einstein so that I could zone enough to get lots of milk flowing :001_smile:

 

I don't kid myself that they're learning anything from TV, but I also don't think a little bit of TV is going to rot out their brains either. Some days we watch none. Some days we watch one 30 minute show. Some days we watch 2 hours total. Some days I let them leave the thing on all day if I'm on a deadline or someone's sick or I'm in the middle of some huge household project that I need to focus on. I'm not thrilled with it, but it's our life right now. Honestly, I think the TV is probably a better babysitter than our last real one was :001_rolleyes:

[mo2]

Well, in my perfect world, we wouldn't own a TV at all, but unfortunately I've always worked from home, so we have used and still use TV as a babysitter more than I'd like. Even when my littles were babies, I'd use the occasional Baby Einstein video when I needed to keep them distracted for about 20 minutes. When my first was a baby, I'd come home from the morning at work and nurse her, and then have to pump for the next day's bottle. She'd watch through a Baby Einstein so that I could zone enough to get lots of milk flowing :001_smile:

 

I don't kid myself that they're learning anything from TV, but I also don't think a little bit of TV is going to rot out their brains either. Some days we watch none. Some days we watch one 30 minute show. Some days we watch 2 hours total. Some days I let them leave the thing on all day if I'm on a deadline or someone's sick or I'm in the middle of some huge household project that I need to focus on. I'm not thrilled with it, but it's our life right now. Honestly, I think the TV is probably a better babysitter than our last real one was :001_rolleyes:

 

 

I could have written pretty much this exact post, except instead of Baby Einstein it was Elmo with dd and Signing Time with ds. We don't have cable or satellite anymore, so it's all DVDs, which means no commercials, thank goodness!

[Adrianne]

I can't remember what the studies say. It's after 2yo that it's ok, right?

 

My olders watch something about 1-2x/mo. Little hasn't watched anything yet.

 

Ack. I meant to attach a poll. Oh well, just fill in the blank.

 

I will start to allow television at 1 to 2 year for 30 minutes at a time as a baby sitter. They can watch family movies with us at night until bedtime.

 

My olders get 30 minutes a day, usually video games. Movies happen on the weekends or sick days. When we had the flu last year, movies were my saving grace when my 5 year old was not sick along with the rest of us.

[Brigitte]

I can't remember what the studies say. It's after 2yo that it's ok, right?

 

My olders watch something about 1-2x/mo. Little hasn't watched anything yet.

 

Ack. I meant to attach a poll. Oh well, just fill in the blank.

 

My children did not watch anything on the TV before the age of 3. At three, they watched, on occasion, Muzzy in French, and two Richard Scary tapes (ABC's and Learning Songs). They are allowed to watch ballets (Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) or operas (Cinderella, Marriage of Figaro, Elixir of Love, to name a few of their favorites). They can watch something in the afternoon on days where they are really tired and getting whiny. They have NEVER watched a Disney movie or any other "kids" movie. Yes, I know, we are freaks.