> Between certain hours, we allow them to watch TV. They can watch any movie they like. They can even switch between movies. But the timeframe is fixed. They can watch a good chunk of one movie, or they can watch a tiny bit of 10 different movies. It's completely up to them.
We stick to the 2x30 minutes rule for 90% of the time but we do make occasional exceptions like when they're ill.
Might change when they get older though.
It's not a challenge to keep a limit on screen time at this age.
Good for you.
It is, however, a challenge for us.
If all your friends have the same rules as you, then great. If all your friends have no rules at all, you are a tyrant, and your child will be at his friends places as much as possible.
I would have thought it's much less. What would be an equivalent restriction on the phone/tablet/more actively engaging devices?
We are a minority.
And if you peer over and look at what they're browsing, it's mostly junk, social media videos or just mindless scrolling.
It's actually healthier for the brain to be bored in such moments.
It's apparently also a hangout spot for (self-awarded) gold star internet parents who love the smell of their own farts and think anyone else wants to smell them.
In general, probably not. My point was that in the specific case of movies, where even movies designed for children usually run at least 80+ minutes, maybe an exception should be made so that the kid can watch the whole movie in one session if they want to and have the patience and attention span to do so.
You can still limit the average to an hour a day. They just have to mix shorter content with movies to keep the average down.
Breaking off movies after an hour is going to put the break around the act II low point in most children's movies. If the kid got invested in the characters and story that's a terrible place to make them stop until tomorrow.
We don't have a set amount of allowed TV time for her, but she typically watches around 15-20 minutes of TV and then gets up and does something else.
The only real rule we have around it is that TV (unlike music) is not a background sound. If you're done watching something, you have to turn it off, not just let it play forever.
My kids are 3 and 2, and they don't watch TV like adults. They watch a bit of movie, get up, walk around, do something else, come back, and watch a bit of another movie or even switch to a TV show. It's weird!
I like your idea about flexibility, but they're too young right now. Maybe we'll introduce your "bank" concept when they get older or increase the "TV budget". But for now we stick to 2x 30 minutes.
I can't imagine having a 3yo watching TV 1 hour a day, especially the movies shown on this video.
That being said, to focus on the technical project, that's very cool!
Indeed they are. I have a five year old who is now old enough to choose his own films and series from a selection curated by us. A system like this would be fine for children of his age.
But 2 and 3? They are too young to choose their own media at all. Not because they can't, but because they can't judge the impact. For toddlers you really want to be the one in control about what they watch (and that horrible Bing can die in a tragic bunny bonfire).
The Lion King, Wall-E? That's just overloading them at that age (and both are rated 6+ in the Netherlands). You can start with those at 5 or so depending on the child, or later if you've noticed them reacting too intensely to films rated 6+. For now? Stick with shorts suitable for their age, and move on to films (like Ghibli's Ponyo) at 4 or 5 as a special treat.
Autonomy is all fine and well, but screens have an enormous impact on developing children. This is a really cool project, but you might want to reflect on how their brains are developing and what you as a parent can do to guide them.
My point is that these things are subjective. I get this unsolicited advice is coming from a good place but it's just your random opinion. Let's leave the parenting up to the parent.
It is unique. There is no guarantee that this would work in any other language unless you found two voice actors with the same level of natural skill and collaboration (I'm sure it must have been tried). You can't write out the dialogue in Czech, translate it, and have it dubbed in various languages; the ad-libbing seems essential, and I'm sure any attempt to replicate this would fail if you didn't get two actors who not only completely grok the show and its protagonists, but also know how to apply the local tropes of this type of character correctly.
But it works. There are few countries where Pat & Mat are as popular as the Netherlands. In fact, it's probably only Czechia itself which tops that. It's not that Pat & Mat were lacking anything — the silent shorts are brilliant in their own right — but the Dutch dub adds another layer of humour which so completely matches the feel of the characters in the show that it doesn't detract at any point. A lot of Dutch don't even know that it is only here where a dub is used, and that the affable dialogue added was never intended!
The only weird and regrettable thing (for a variation of a Czech show) is that you have to understand spoken Dutch to get it.
Not that weird I think... my 5 year old does exactly this. He cant sit through a full movie. My 7 year old also had that issue but now she can.
there is a round robin process for who gets to pick from the catalogue and if there is no amicable consensus, we split or override.
30mins is about the attention span of a kid and you can see them get anxious and distracted after that, most of the time.
So...if one of them wants to watch The Lion King or Toy Story they have to split it over at least 3 viewing sessions split over at least 2 days? And for anything else on that list they need to split it over at least 4 viewing sessions?
That seems overly restrictive. Yes, limiting kid's TV time is probably a good idea, but would it really hurt to have some flexibility so that they can finish a movie in one session? Maybe let them bank sessions, so they can say skip morning TV for 3 days, and apply that time to the 4th day's evening to get a slot for a whole movie.