television

[peanut]

 My son cant seem to take his eyes off the tv. He could be in the middle of doing something and his head will be turned to the tv not looking at what he is doing. When he watches tv, everything else around him is tuned out. Do i deny him tv priviliges or what? How do i stop this?

[smudge]

If your son is school age & does homework, I wouldn't turn the TV on until he's finished doing it.

Our two youngest Granddaughters like watching TV, but when my daughter turns the hi fi on, they start dancing & completely forget about it. After a while the music is turned to soft music & it's amazing how much talking, writing & drawing gets done then.

[ezapf]

Keep the TV off while he is doing things. Children are easily distracted (as I am) and have trouble focusing (as I do) if there are distractions like TV, radio, or even pestering pets or siblings.

I like the way Smudge's daughter handles it. I will give that a try with my little one.

[greendog]

I think to completely deny TV isn�t necessarily the best course of action as it can be a great source for learning.  Maybe having him watch the right sorts of programme (educational i.e. history, nature) would be the best plan.  However, a reduction in the amount of TV watching would be advisable as I feel the majority of the material being churned out by TV stations is no more good for the mind than undergoing a frontal lobotomy.   

[smudge]

ezapf - Thank you, I will pass that on to my daughter.

[Mr.Ix]

I agree, its not the TV , rather the program thats important.

[peanut]

thank you all for the help. 3 stars for all

[TEAK36]

I remember a few years ago watching one of these parenting tv programs, and this was one of the problems brought up.To solve the problem,one of the parents designed 'tv tokens' which she gave to her daughter at the start of each week.Each token represented half an hours tv viewing, and once they were used up,that was it, no more tv.At first it was difficult,but after a while,her daughter (4 years old) began to save her tokens so that she could watch her favourite programmes,and this left more time to do other things.When I first saw this programme, I laughed and thought that this mother was a bit over zealous, but at the time I did not have any children and did not understand the effect that too much tv can have on children.I now have two boys (3 yrs, & 11 mths) and fully appreciate where this mother was coming from when she designed these tv tokens.My boy watches far too much tv, and when he is a little older, I may try this technique myself.

[Scarlett]

Your son is normal- have you seen people's heads swoop towards the TV in pubs that have Sky Sports on?!!! But it is anti-social, and not particularly constructive. Use the TV as you would a board game, or the Hi-fi. Or, what I do is, play music (different types) a lot of the time, so that you can do other things at the same time. Then watch TV if there is something special on.

[karma20uk]

 I do a lot of baby sitting. One child in particular did just that, sat in front of the television. I suggested we read a book once, and he replied ''books are gay'' (My hand was on my hip quicker than you can say judy garland and after a little talk about how it is important to not use these words as insults, i ran upstairs to 'grab' something from the bookshelve.)

 Sitting down, i began to flip though the book and read aloud. At first he wasn't listening, but I read louder...''Scooby doo'' i say loudly and he sort of subtly comes and sits next to me (he's a die hard scooby fan)... In no time at all he was reading scooby doo with me and i was able to turn the tv off.

 Children need to be SHOWN these things. They don't know how fun another activity is going to be until you SHOW them. Switch the tv off and (quicker than light) whip out a fun game or something.