Dont really understand why?

My 4 yr old, loves cbeebies, and Star Wars 🙂 and we still have an amazing family life. He is a very bright child. He has learnt alot from TV.

He watches it when we get up for an hour, or sometimes 2 on a weekend, and for an hour before bed. A couple that we are friendly with, dont have a TV, their child is not as bright or as literate as ours, and she really seems to have alot less knowledge of the world.

TV is not bad, its how you control it that counts.

it isn’t that hard, really, is it? FFS – everything in moderation!

A small point that some may not be aware of is that you still need a TV licence to watch iPlayer live content. I think you are OK with non live content.
Some interesting points above show that being a no TV household in 2012 is a very different thing to a no TV household prior to the internet.
Only one kid in my primary school had no TV and he was decidedly weird. This is when there were only 3 channels and a choice of black and white or colour. Breakfast telly had not been invented and if you fell asleep in front of the box you would wake to a little white dot and a beeping noise rather than some one trying to flog you a miraculous mop or nasal hair trimmer.

A small point that some may not be aware of is that you still need a TV licence to watch iPlayer live content. I think you are OK with non live content.
Some interesting points above show that being a no TV household in 2012 is a very different thing to a no TV household prior to the internet.
Only one kid in my primary school had no TV and he was decidedly weird. This is when there were only 3 channels and a choice of black and white or colour. Breakfast telly had not been invented and if you fell asleep in front of the box you would wake to a little white dot and a beeping noise rather than some one trying to flog you a miraculous mop or nasal hair trimmer.

Our kids don’t get to watch CBBC etc. They do have a fine selection (ie the OH choose them) of DVDs (including the complete Ivor the Engine).

So, for some reason, it is fine for the kids to watch what you did as a kid, but the stuff now (despite being designed with educational specialists etc) isn’t good enough for them?

quite an interesting thread – it seems no tv means tv viewing is restricted to watching tv on a small poor sounding laptop, not no tv.

One thing I do want to know is without a tv in your living room, what do you point your furniture at?

Not at all PrinceJohn. I’ve got a 28″ monitor and a very good hifi system. I just don’t use broadcast TV. My furniture faces the speakers 🙂

I watched loads of TV as a kid, and played computer games. It didn’t stop me reading books or going outside or doing exercise.

My kids watch loads of TV, and play computer games. And go on Bin Weevils and Moshi Monsters and have email and use iPlayer and catch-up TV and watch DVDs and You Tube. It doesn’t stop them reading books or going outside or doing exercise.

I’m jealous that they have much better TV than I did at their age and access to the web.

our TVs been broken for ages now, so kids don’t watch ‘whatever’s on’.

kids do watch stuff online or on DVD though. This probably makes it easier to have ‘control’ of what they watch and when and how much etc.

Lots of radio on in our house/car too though.

Wife found it hard, but even she just streams or downloads now.

might change soon; just ‘inherited’ a big plasma thingy from a (all but blind due to MS) friend who is getting a bigger TV…