how to control your child's tv time

Too much TV will hurt him more than you could hurt him by restricting his time. Their eyes and brain connections are still developing. Too much screen time can be overstimulating for some young children, leading to behavioral issues. Two-years old is such a hard time anyways. They have no perception of time passing. They do not have the communication skills so cry and fuss when they are unhappy. Even though they can't speak their mind so well yet, they understand more than we think so you should talk to him all the time about what you are doing rather than just doing it. For instance,"I'm going to turn the DVD off now so we can draw." Your son sounds very intelligent. Vocalize everything to him. Start introducing him to the notion of time and how there is a certain time for everything. "Okay, it's time to get dressed. It's time to eat lunch. It's time to color. It's time to watch Brainy Baby. It's time to go outside and see Mr. Sun." Small amounts of TV time are better, so keep it short but let him have 2-3 times a day. He will quickly learn that turning the TV off doesn't mean forever and he will get more TV later. For his TV time, refer to the specific programs (they have a start and end) rather than just watching TV or his DVDs. Then he will learn that when the program is done, it's time to do something else instead of more TV. My son loved books as a toddler and we only watched limited TV, educational programming. He became a very early, fast, advanced reader. Books were always the last thing activity of the day, not TV. He is 16yo now and still loves books and reading. We watch a fair amount of TV, but it isn't priority. Also, we enjoy a wide range of programming from movies to educational programs like on the Science, History, and Discovery channels. Whatever TV habits you help your son form now, he will likely carry into his older years so make them good, positive habits. Good luck and let us know how it's working out!

It is hard to control your child's tv time. Maybe you can remove his attention to other things and put his study into something interesting.

Controlling the amount of time that your child spends watching the television is very important. You don't say whether the DVD player is in your child's bedroom or not, but if it is, I would suggest that you take it out because it should be a place where he goes to sleep, not where he watches DVDs. You should allow him to watch it for a small amount of time each day, and build it into his routine so that he has something else to do afterwards then he doesn't just get bored. Keeping him busy will take his mind off the fact that you've turned the television off, and will hopefully prevent some of the arguments that you're experiencing with him at the moment.

Easy I take a everything that has to do with the tv and turn it off. I also put things on that she will not like to watch like home and design things it bores my 18 month old so she goes and play and as soon as she is playing I turn off the tv or I don't turn it on at all. She loves going outside any chance we have to go out we do.

You have the good insight to know that to much TV is not good. My folks always brought us up on too much TV and my brother is still very wrapped up in it as an adult. It gets to the point where he won't let anyone in the room talk if it's on, and my folks here just go with it as he wants it to be. He claims it's due to him being "hard of hearing" but he does this when he wants to, in other words if he feels like he wants to talk then it's OK. My point is this though, you must set a limit on it as soon as you can, don't let it go that far as in his age or he will end up like him at 45 yr old. I think he can do some other activities that are fun instead, try to encourage those more than TV.Otherwise he will end up like this brother of mine no doubt. Let him know that there is always time for TV, that he has went past him limit and if he can wait another day he will have the TV again.

What you could also do is make TV more of a reward rather than a privilege, make him have to earn the time he watches his TV by having him read for a certain amount of time or something like that.

Watching TV is quite addicting. I hope you won't expose your child in watching TV too much. Let him watch for only two hours. I have a nephew who was addicted in watching TV. He only listens and watches most of the time. So now, he doesn't speak to us. He only makes actions if he wants to tell us something. I hope it won't happen to your child. Try to talk to him and show him your authority. But, don't hurt him. He will get stubborn if you will always hurt him.

You have to be consistent. When you educate and bring up a kid, you are not going to avoid hurting your kid once or twice in a while. You should insist on the curfews. Maybe get him a plush toy of a character or a show he likes to make him sleep with???