Early on we decided that we would limit TV,Video Games, Screens in General to Friday night after school till Sunday night. No screens during the day after 11am on the weekends till about 6pm. we've stuck with that. They are encouraged to read and can do that anytime they want. They are now 8 and 12 and avid readers,…

My kid is older, but we make her earn tv time. She has a list of chores that are bundled and she can earn a penny which is worth 15 minutes of tv time. There are usually 2 quick chores bundled with a longer chore and we focus on things that she gets repeatedly asked to do, like empty her lunchbox so I can wash the…

You'd think so, rape being a biologically hardwired, nigh-irresistible urge in general, but no.

Men who use their intoxication as a pretense for sexual assault are no different than men who use their anger as a pretense for violent assault. Note how the same men that have "anger management problems" almost never explode and beat their bosses or their coworkers. They almost never go off and attack their…

They are at a good age for it, I guess. I would say the longer you wait the harder it gets. I am sooooo not a kids expert. I can tell you that the best strategy I've learned with my son is setting expectations. Just tell them up-front how much they get, and allow them to make decisions around how to use it (easier…

My kids are a couple of years older, but I found we had to set limits. Mornings they are only allowed to watch screens once dressed/breakfasted/bags packed etc. This is non-negotiable so they don't even ask now.

Wooh!!! A todder AND a 4-year old?? That is a DOOZY. How do you manage it without becoming a raging caffeine monster?! Much respect.

At our house we made a half-hour limit for TV during weekdays. It actually makes it fun for a kid to choose what to view during that precious half hour. Today will be an episode of Word Girl, tomorrow maybe the first part of Monsters Inc.

You can try no TV on school days, but maybe yours aren't in preschool or daycare yet. You could try no TV before 5 (if you want to let them watch at the end of the day) or no TV after 9 if they like to watch in the morning. But I found it helpful to have a consistent rule. I let mine watch as long as she wanted…

I think my mom just didn't let me watch that much when I was that young, but when I was a bit older the rule was no channel surfing or looking for something to watch, and with only one TV in the house mom got it for the evening news. Maybe that doesn't work as well in the era of binge watching on Netflix and multiple…

When I was a kid (back in the dark ages, yes), my parents had a 2 hours per week per kid rule. We had to battle out the week's schedule on Sundays, but it actually worked. You could watch no more than 2 hours a week, not counting family movie nights or shows watched all together. If a sibling was watching a show and…

My kids (2.5, 4.5, and 7) each get to pick one show, so even if they all watch all three, at 22 min/show, that's not much more than an hour a day. This way they feel like it's all "fair" and they have some control, but it stays pretty limited. We have some basic rules - no TV in the morning before school, and…

2 and 4 is a good time to make a tv rule because they would much rather actively play with you. How much time do you want them to watch tv? Are there particular shows? With the 4 year old, you could give a choice. Say, he or she gets to watch one show per day, but she choices between Pre-approved options. Kids are…

I agree with the also-mentioned timer idea. The nice thing about a timer is that it is fair & inanimate and the preschool crowd tends not to rage against it the same way that they do when a parent tells them, "Time's up".

I suggest a time limit which is agreed upon with your kids which you stick to rigidly. So, agree with them how much tv they can watch on weekdays (say 2 hours, providing homework etc is done) and how much at weekends (3/4 hours or whatever). Then maybe set a timer each time they go on the tv (an egg timer or online…

YES! When they're that small, you can lie through your teeth and they will totally buy it. If they're primarily watching movies via DVD or Netflix or whatever, well that's just too bad, kids - Netflix is broken!

I am obsessed with tv now, even trashy tv, cause my family let me have NO TV. My father was one of those people who talks smugly about not having a tv?

I agree with sort of cold turkey— mostly TV is off with limited exceptions, instead of usually on but you turn it off sometimes to get them to play with other stuff. I would tell them one show in the morning, one show in the evening, or something like that. We still kind of do that— they can watch a few minutes…

You're right about the bluster - every fight or near-fight I've ever seen between men (and women, come to think of it) involves them puffing out chests, standing tall and holding out their arms. It's like those nature docs with male birds fluffing out their feathers.

With older kids, you can do something like a set number of hours per week, and let the kid decide when and what to watch. Or "no TV until all the homework's done and the room is clean."