Do your kids watch? What and how much?

amother

OP ↓

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 9:25 am

Im looking for replies from people in my general circles. I live in lakewood and im litvish... I guess youd say open minded yeshivish (is that a thing??) My oldesr daughter just started school this year. Ive been trying to not let her watch at all since school started. I think its great to have a clear head in school and it doesnt hurt that I dont want her talking about paw patrol or peppa pig. Weve gone thru stages where my kids watched a few hours a day (beginning of a pregnancy/survival mode) to nothing at all. In curious what you do at home? Im entering my 9th month now and have been feeling horrible since yom tov and I really want my kids to let me rest this afternoon but I have a very guilty subconscious!

amother

Mistyrose ↓

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 9:49 am

Now that dc is in primary, I only allow DVDs. I don't allow internet- YouTube or Amazon prime - anymore. So it's uncle moishy, Elmo, and whatever other DVDs we own.
I do allow them to watch cartoons like paw patrol at our relatives' homes (they have TVs, they don't live in Lakewood.)

amother

Papaya

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 10:17 am

My kids watch when I need them to (Friday afternoons etc) they watch Jewish stuff - uncle Moishy, dr middos etc. and non Jewish they watch Daniel tiger, paw patrol, Barney and little baby bum. I don’t let peppa because imo they treat the daddy pig with a lot of disrespect.
As a matter of fact, at DD school interview (regular Lakewood school) they asked us if and what she watches. I said that yes, she does watch occasionally dr middos, uncle Moishy etc. DD pipes up “I also watch Daniel Tiger!” I was ready to fall through the floor. BH they accepted us anyway. Actually just yesterday I was at the park in a very yeshivish neighborhood and a little boy was there with his father. Boy had thick payos, father was wearing a hat and jacket. Typical yeshivish Lakewood looking. Boy was repeating “Paw patrol, we’re ready for action! We’re on a roll!” Go figure.

amother

↑ Mistyrose

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 10:21 am

amother [ Papaya ] wrote:

They watch this stuff on YouTube?

pizza4

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 10:21 am

Occasionally uncle moishy and bella bracha or mitzvah boulevard DVDs.
Sometimes we do live hookup to israel to watch a simcha or let's say after sukkos the simchas bais hashoieva.
And as soon as I get a copy of sibs wedding video, they can watch that.
All very occasionally.

Cmon be nice

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 10:23 am

We let our kids watch but you need to be careful- over YT DD7 told us that in an Arthur DVD that we got from library theres an episode where the male teacher marries a man. Do we really need 7 year olds to know about gay marriage? Problem I its an innocent looking cartoon

amother

Lemon

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 11:06 am

I live in Lkwd and am litvish but not particularly yeshivish.

My kids are allowed to watch on Fridays and on Sundays, not during the school week. I let them watch PBS type programming - kids shows like curious George, Martha, etc. During vacations, I get them DVDs of mostly cartoon like movies. They also like watching the daycamp videos and some Jewish stuff. I don't like Uncle Moishy ever since my son saw the mess grew bigger video and decided that was the best game in the world to play. Also, I think they are show-offy with Uncle Moishy having this grand old time while they are stuck at home so I don't really use them anymore. They are not allowed to watch if a friend is over because they are there to play. Also I like to respect other people's sensitivities so I just make it a blanket "no" rule because I don't feel like chasing moms to ask what they're OK with and putting them on the spot.

The kids on my block who go to the more "frum" schools are the ones who know an awful lot about TV characters! So whatever you do decide to do, rest assured your kids are not the only ones!

mha3484

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 11:22 am

I am yeshivish-middle of the road. In a large Midwestern community.

My two rules with watching is that

1) It has to have educational value. I have had survival times where they watched more shtus and I really really didnt like it so once that period passed I got much much stricter. My 5 year old mostly watches blippi or jewish music videos. My almost 9 year old watches things like mythbusters that I watch first to make sure it does not have bad language. He likes how its made videos and he had a phase where he watched a series of a guy who de hoarded a house and renovated it. I thought it was super boring but he found it fascinating.

We have many many conversations about how watching videos can teach us new things or be a waste of time. I want him to be able to filter himself and manage his time when hes an adult.

2) It always comes last. If they ask for the ipad before school they all need to be dressed, eaten breakfast and ready to walk out the door. If they ask for it in the evening they need to be ready for bed, showers any homework done any extra learning done. If there is time after doing what is necessary then I may or may not say yes. I want them to see it as an extra bonus not an entitlement.

amother

Brown ↓

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 11:26 am

amother [ Amber ] wrote:

Does your school have rules about these things? That would be a starting point.

This. My kids are in a not yehivish Lakewood school (no Yiddish) and they are pretty strict about no non Jewish shows/movies.
If you do show non Jewish make sure dd keeps quiet about it in school

giselle ↓

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 11:51 am

All the schools I know of have strict rules about watching. But even in a lot of the schools that are more to the right, kids watch a lot of movies and tv shows. I allow my kids to watch on weekends within limits, but technically the school doesn’t allow it. I don’t know a single person in the school who follows that rule, and I’m sure the school is aware.

DVOM ↓

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 12:17 pm

My boys watch 6-10 movies a year, when they are home sick from school or on 'desperation days,' mostly erev yomim tovim when my husband wont be home until 10 minutes before a chag and I feel like I'm going to combust if I don't have an hour of quiet. In addition, they sometimes watch stuff or play on the WII or PS4 or Nintendoswitch when we are by our bubbys house.

My oldest is 11, my youngest is 4. It's starting to get tough to find things that are not too scary for Mr. 4, not too babyish for Mr. 11. My 11 year old's friends at school (Lakewood, YTT) have watched all the superhero movies, the harry potter movies, and truly mindless junk like the Garfield show. We used to do really well with Wildkratz and The Magic Schoolbus, but it's not cutting it any more. We're slowly making our way through Disney movies. They all loved Alladin, The Lion King, Mulan, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Pocahontis, The Rescuers Down Under, Frozen... For his birthday the past two years my 11 year old watched one of the Harry Potter movies with his 11 year old cousin without the littler boys. We also watched The Lion, the witch and the wordrobe, just me and Mr. 11, after we finished reading through the series.

I'm not sure how long I'm going to be able to keep our screen time so contained and innocent, but for now, it's working.

↑ DVOM

Fri, Oct 25 2019, 12:24 pm

giselle wrote:

Very surprised that the school has no rules.

Re: School rules:

Our Lakewood school has rules re: movies, tv, internet access on the books, but literally no one follows it. It kind of makes a mockery of rules when they are so widely ignored. I wish the school would sit down with a cross-section of the parent body and come up with a more realistic guideline that the kids (and thier parents) could aspire to follow. Of my kids friends, we have the most stringent screen based entertainment rules at home, and even we are braking the schools rules.

For example: there is a game called Call of Duty (I think) that you play against other players online. I have lots of friends in my sons' school who let thier kids play this game. Actually, a friend sent me the cutes pic of her kid and his friend who got up at like 6 in the morning to be able to play in the opening of the game when the new season started this summer. The school rules are still talking about movies... I don't think they are even aware that boys in the older grades are socializing through this game by playing on each other's teams. Are they oblivious? Are they simply aware that there is little they can do to police the kids outside of school?