kids, television and tivo (dvr)

I'm interested in hearing how other parents regulate kids television
watching, and if you use tivo (or another dvr) to help ensure kids only
watch higher quality shows while filtering out commercials.

Anonymama...

That's exactly what we do. We just started letting our three-year-old
watch TV; he can pick up to one show a day (some days he doesn't think
to ask). We record a few different shows for him on the Tivo, so there's
always something when he's in the mood for his one show. I don't know
about "higher quality," but we record ones without blatant commercials:
Sesame Street (which, I sometimes feel, is one long commercial), Arthur,
and Mr. Rogers.

Sue...

I've never had any restrictions on the TV as far as how much. They have to
have their homework done and chores need to be done, then they can watch it.
I've seen too many of their friends become TVaholics from their parents
restricting it, so I take the middle ground and restrict it if it is
becoming a problem and not worry about it the rest of the time. So far, the
girls just watch things that are appropriate for them and they are 13, 10,
and 9. Commercials don't bother me. We have friends in the advertising
business, so they are tuned in with the gimmicks they do to get people to
buy things, but they are unfazed by it. Some commercials are funny and we
take them at face value.

Irene...

We got Tivo recently (Thanksgiving weekend), and it has been wonderful
for us. I WOH full-time, so naturally, most of the more
age-appropriate shows are on when we aren't home. (I have a 4.5 year
old and a 21 month old). It was always a struggle to find something
appropriate, or keep up with videos/dvds from the library, so we ended
up compromising more than I was happy with on what was acceptable.
With the Tivo, we always have a good selection of appropriate shows to
choose from, which is very, very nice.

The downside? You never get to say, "Oh, well, there's nothing good
on, so we'll just shut it off." ;-) Not that we never shut it off -
you just lose that particular tactic!

Oh, and sometimes we watch the commercials, and sometimes we skip them
- depending on our mood. I do purposefully record Dora & Blue on
Noggin rather than NickJr for the sole purpose of avoiding commercials.

dragonlady...

Another advantage to the digital recorders is how FAST you can watch
some things.

I'll admit to a fondness for Jepardy! and Wheel of Fortune -- don't
watch them often, but I do enjoy them. Now I record them, and, by
skipping the commercials and all the talking, I can watch Wheel of
Fortune in about 10 minutes; Jepardy takes longer, because there's more
"real" stuff, but still under 20 minutes.

And DH has been recording football games this season -- he starts
watching the recording when the game is in the 4th quarter, so he
finishes watching about the time the game is over. By skipping
commercials and most of the commentary, and by watching many plays at
4X, he can watch a football game in 40 minutes, and gets his football
Jones satisfied!

We almost never watch TV "real" time anymore -- even if there's
something on we know we want to watch, we record it so we can skip
commercials if we want to.

Can you tell I love the thing? We switched to satallite TV some time
back (reception here is lousy, so not having either cable or satallite
means you can't watch TV at all -- and that's not our choice) and got
the digital recorder for free -- but I'm completely sold on it.

Welches...

I have no idea what a tivo or dvr is. We regulate the TV watching by not
having one. It works really well, and saves on the licence fee.
Debbie

My wife and I hardly watch any tv. For a long time we didn't even own
one. Now we allow videos on the weekends and recently we got basic
cable service that comes almost for free with our internet connection.
But now I find my boys channel surfing really bad programming, with too
many commercials.

Rather than eliminating it again, I'm considering getting directv with
their dvr (like tivo) in order to record higher quality kids
programming during the week, so that there is a store of good programs
to watch on the weekends.

If you have done this, I'd like to hear strategy in (a) limiting tv
watching to reasonable number of hours; and (b) improving the quality
of programming in what your kids do watch.