Reducing kid's morning TV (or suggestions for very short programs)
September 22, 2017 11:55 AM   Subscribe

I try to control my (almost four year old) kid's tv time. She always watches a 15 minute video or so before her bath at night (usually Bearenstain Bears.) A few months ago, she started watching another 15 minute episode in the morning while I braid her hair. I want to cut this out or shorten it -- ideas?

I know a half hour a day total of TV isn't awful for a four year old but I think it's more than she needs. Also, it slows us down in the morning. I started both the morning and evening TV when we had a new baby and I needed some time during those points, but now it's just become a habit.

I'm OK with the evening TV still, but would like to cut out the morning TV or reduce it. I could go cold turkey, obviously, but that would be WWIII in our household.

Any suggestions for replacing the TV time while I braid her hair with another activity? She already looks at loads of books so that won't ease the transition. Or some kind of shorter cartoon? Basically now she only wants to watch Bearenstain Bears but that gives an idea of her taste. In the past she's liked Peppa too.

Feel free to also tell me if I'm being crazy to think this is too much TV!
posted by heavenknows to Media & Arts (16 answers total)
 
If your objection is TV specifically, you could probably get her equally excited about age appropriate apps on your phone or an iPad. It is debatable whether something like Toca Tea Party is a whole lot worse than playing with an actual toy... you pretend to pour tea, eat cake, wash the dishes.

when I was a child, during hair braiding we would complain or fight about the hair braiding process; that's an option but might not be the best one.

You could also try becoming a child entertainer, singing interactive songs or telling exciting stories.
posted by redorangeyellow at 12:14 PM on September 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


Gently, I do think it's crazy to think that 30 minutes a day is too much TV but I do understand wanting to cut down, especially for getting-out-the-door purposes. And also, it's entirely up to you as a parent, so if you want less TV you want less TV, and that's valid.

It might make it easier to switch to something that is ten minutes per episode rather than fifteen. We watch a lot of Octonauts in this house and each episode is actually two ten minute ones which end with a song (the "Creature Report") about whatever animal was the focus of the episode. It's a good break away point because it's easy to tell the kids, hey, we're leaving after the song, and have them accept it with minimal fuss. I also love Octonauts because it's super educational and it has made our family visits to the aquarium and the beach pretty fantastic. It is also the reason why my 3 year old can tartly correct adults about sea creatures ("that's not a whale, that's a HUMPBACK whale.")
posted by lydhre at 12:15 PM on September 22, 2017 [11 favorites]


Is there something she would like that you could give her the choice? Like maybe a sticker activity sheet from a book like this.
posted by vunder at 12:20 PM on September 22, 2017


Go for Looney Toons. They are timeless. Kids love them. Best of all, each episode is about 7 minutes.

You can purchase individual episodes on iTunes. There is also an app called Boomerang that makes lots of episodes available. I imagine there are many other places that you can get them, too.

My kids' favorites are Road Runner and Sylvester and Tweetie, but really they're all great. And they're super short.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:36 PM on September 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


If it's about getting out the door, wake her up 10 minutes earlier (or give her an alarm clock set earlier). If she wants to watch the full 15 mins in the morning, she has to get up early enough. Too late getting up or too much time messing around instead of doing all the morning chores (getting dressed, brushing teeth, etc) and she misses out and it's her own fault.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:43 PM on September 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


At that age my daughter liked the kids song compilations on youtube. I'm not sure how to find them, but maybe just search for 'Wheels on the bus'? A lot of them are complete crap animation with crap singing, but it's still music with visuals, which is more engaging than just music.

I do think you're a teeny bit crazy for thinking this is too much tv, BUT - I think you're also on the right track wanting to cut out or cut down morning television. I let my daughter watch tv in the morning or I'd never be able to get ready for work, but I do feel that it interferes with her getting into the right headspace for school.
posted by kitcat at 1:00 PM on September 22, 2017


When we are doing my daughter's hair, I let her play with a hairbrush and all the different clips or fancy elastics in our box of hair stuff. She will bring a stuffed animal or a doll and then "do" their hair while I am doing her hair. We also enjoy listening to some upbeat pop music, which helps distract from the whining and complaining about hair.
posted by rozee at 1:06 PM on September 22, 2017


Maybe introduce something shorter for her to watch during hair time?
There are tons of 5 minute videos she could watch instead.
Here's the Sesame Street Channel for some examples.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 1:25 PM on September 22, 2017


Our kid has become accustomed to watching half hour of TV during breakfast and dinner (fine we are terrible, two working parents with harried jobs what can I say am both ashamed and defensive about it) - so accustomed that he associates 7am and 6pm with TV time. In the last week we have managed to change this.

What it took: disrupting the schedule with a few days of Grandma visiting. We told him "Grandma doesn't like to watch TV while we are eating - so let's all talk instead." And during these times we all sat around the table w books and brought up one or two "topics" or "questions" we were going to talk about - Halloween, what is skiing, what is an emergency, any other burning questions he has. We doodled explanations and tried to come up w a few new family in-jokes. We look for Goldbug in Richard Scarry books. We try to keep things lively and interactive. After we're done eating he gets a much reduced little clip to watch on the couch.

Once Grandma left on Monday we kept this up. In the four days since, he has protested that he likes it the way it was before "when I watched TV WHILE I eat" but we are like nope, we're big and we're family we do this now, and we hold to it. I think we needed an outside authority to catalyze and normalize change and to mitigate meltdown - kind of passing the parenting buck I guess but it has worked to deflect direct upset and now enough time has passed that he can only be sad things have changed vs railing against something being freshly taken away from him. Basically I think you can do this if you time this with a few days of abnormal schedules anyway and just piggyback the transition. Good luck!
posted by sestaaak at 1:57 PM on September 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


If it helps you feel normal I share your preference to keep TV significantly under half an hour per day for children of a similar age.

Short shows for that age which we've enjoyed include Peppa (5 minutes), Hey Duggee (7 minutes), Pingu (5 minutes), Sarah and Duck (7 minutes), The 1970s Wombles (5 minutes) and individual segments of the adult show How It's Made (5 minutes).
posted by Busy Old Fool at 2:47 PM on September 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


A non-TV thing that was similar enough to be very popular in my household is audiobooks. You can find some collections of very short stories for little kids. Elizabeth Falconer, for example, has lots of Japanese folk tales that my daughter really liked. We checked them out from the library online, so there was lots to choose from.
posted by Missense Mutation at 3:31 PM on September 22, 2017 [3 favorites]


Radio or podcasts of either children's content or jazz, classical, or mellow rock?
posted by calgirl at 4:14 PM on September 22, 2017


I don't think it's crazy to cut out weekday morning TV. The cognitive passivity of watching TV is exactly the opposite of what they need to be doing to get ready for the day. TV is for gearing down, not gearing up.

I personally have cut out the conditions that required a lot of hair fiddling on the part of my daughters. But if your daughter wants her long hair and wants braids, and has trouble sitting still for as long as it takes to do them, maybe an audio book, or her favorite pop song.
posted by fingersandtoes at 4:22 PM on September 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


As someone with a near-4-year old who also needs to get her to stay still to do her hair, I do think you're being crazy. This is a practical tool for you that's making your life a lot easier. As parents, we're often encouraged to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I think this is one of those cases. Switching to a shorter show is fine (hey duggee is pretty great; my kid loves whiskerhaven palace pets, but those are only like 2 minutes long) but nothing works so well for doing long kid's hair as a screen, really.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:50 AM on September 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


Shaun the Sheep episodes are 8 minutes long. And hilarious.
posted by RedEmma at 12:59 PM on September 23, 2017


Just stop braiding her hair, or is that too obvious...?
posted by kmennie at 6:25 PM on September 25, 2017


« Older I want the app equivalent of the the pill timer...   |   I speak English, you speak... English? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.