Telly

Martha watches way too much telly - basically if we are in the house she wants it on. I have got more and more slack about letting her have it as we are out and about so much, and with the nicer weather have been in the garden quite a bit, but when it clouded over this afternoon and we came in straight away she wants cbeebies on.

We have it on in the morning and there are often (not always) arguments about getting ready for pre school cos she doesn't want to miss a programme, if I offer to tape it for her she will rarely ask for it later.

She's very hyper sometimes when she's watching it too - rolling about on the floor or sofa or whatever.

I know I need to just man up and tell her no - the usual distraction techniques like "lets do some painting" or "lets do drawing" etc have stopped working.

Anyone else's kids like this? I am wondering if we just go cold turkey for a week and not have it on at all but it is useful in the mornings - on the other hand we aren't at pre school now and I can't face a summer of cbeebies!!

Ironically she has just turned it off and offered to come help me make tea

I had a similar experience when I was pregnant with Dexter, I used to let Harriet watch far too much tv as it was easier . I just decided to go for the plain old no and cold turkey and now she rarely asks. I won't say that she never watches tv but it's not often, it's usually used as a treat now

Humm no suggestion that i can think of just now, G is quite happy to have it on or not, she does ask in the morning but I generally don't put in on until 9am x

She lasted 5 minutes in the kitchen before saying "telly is more fun, I'm going to watch telly" and is now having a meltdown cos I said no

I would just stick to your guns, same as you would with something else. Maybe have set times for the tv and explain that to her and then stick to them. Perhaps you could show her on the clock, as a visual aid to help her know when her tv time is coming up.

Alesha was like this a while back, with bad weather etc we just got into a habit of having it on as we where home all day, and if disney junior is on she is glued to it constantly, so now she has about half hour or so on the channel 5 milkshake in the morning whilst im waking up, getting showered dresses etc before breakfast and then kids programmes dont go on again untill the half hour before her bedtime, someonetimes if we home all day we may sat and watch a disney dvd in the afternoon but thats it, we always have music on the dvd player, thats just for background noise really thou

TV is banned on a morning in our house I couldn't stand the arguments over getting ready and getting out of the house. I think it has been about 2 years now. I had a similar problem with the computer so now the each have their own log in and the parental controls are set so that they can't log in until after 2pm and once they have logged in they only get an hour and then it locks them out (I'm a very mean Mummy )

I would just stick to your guns, same as you would with something else. Maybe have set times for the tv and explain that to her and then stick to them. Perhaps you could show her on the clock, as a visual aid to help her know when her tv time is coming up.

I was going to say this too. She might think its just not going back on again and pester you.
We have the TV on for a bit in the morning and it goes off after Fifi/Peppa. It might go on at lunchtime but more often than not we do something else. Its then on after tea but it helps them chill and have some down time before bed and bath. Radio 2 is on a lot during the day.

Martha watches way too much telly - basically if we are in the house she wants it on. I have got more and more slack about letting her have it as we are out and about so much, and with the nicer weather have been in the garden quite a bit, but when it clouded over this afternoon and we came in straight away she wants cbeebies on.

We have it on in the morning and there are often (not always) arguments about getting ready for pre school cos she doesn't want to miss a programme, if I offer to tape it for her she will rarely ask for it later.

She's very hyper sometimes when she's watching it too - rolling about on the floor or sofa or whatever.

I know I need to just man up and tell her no - the usual distraction techniques like "lets do some painting" or "lets do drawing" etc have stopped working.

Anyone else's kids like this? I am wondering if we just go cold turkey for a week and not have it on at all but it is useful in the mornings - on the other hand we aren't at pre school now and I can't face a summer of cbeebies!!

Ironically she has just turned it off and offered to come help me make tea

It's because TV watching releases dopamine. It's like Ritalin for an ADD kid.

Try music instead?