Im afraid mine watch far too much tv too. I salve my concience that at least it's CBeebies ie good quality educational and no adverts! Something one of my friends did, which helped a little I think, was to turn the volume down low, so her son could only hear it if he really stopped and listenened. It made it more likely that his toys were going to get his attention. Radio is also great company. But as a consolation, here is what happened with my DD1: I always made a point of talking with her about whatever she was watching, much as I would if we were out walking, using it to promote learning and coversation; and at about 3 my DD1 would demand the TV was switched off for some "peace & quiet" - something she had observed daddy doing. Much as I hated the loss of noise & distraction for cleaning time, I played along with this and praised her love of peace & quiet, and this developed into more tv-off time. My DD1 has good powers of concentration and imagination and is doing well in school, so, IMO, do what you can and dont worry too much about the effect of what you cant do on your child, they'll survive fine most likely!

We hardly ever have the TV on at all in my house.  The only time she gets to watch TV is at the daycare provider's home, (even that's limited to 30 minutes) or when we're travelling long distances. This has been a habit of ours since day one and my child hardly ever asks for TV.  She has learned to entertain herself with her toys, read her books (flipping through the pages) or watches me clean.  My philosophy is that when they're this young, I would rather spend time with my child and save the cleaning for when she's napping or when hubby is home to help. It's just my priority, and my husband realizes that while I'm not a perfect housewife, I am a good mother. I definitely agree with taking her to the park, or even taking her shopping, she can learn so much from just that.

Hiya! I know the feeling all too well. My little one has watched the Wiggles movie about 100000 times now and never gets sick of it and it seems the only thing that will hold her attention while I attend to dinner cooking etc.  I felt the same way as you a couple of weeks ago and decided to enrol ourselves in some mums and bubs swimming classes once a week.  I know it wont solve the everyday problem but its something to look forward to each week and she LOVEs it! she even learned to count to 3 from those classes!

What I do:

t.v  for your favorite educational shows

Radio with children's music, dance music (and dance along with her while you clean up.

Give her a cloth and have her 'clean' with you (babies love to mimick!)

stop cleaning around for 30 minutes and color with her, read with her, play with her.

I bought a 6 cube organizational unit and have thee shelves with fabric drawers. I place all of her toys in different drawers and she goes to the shelves and drawers and pulls what she wants out and plays on her own...maybe you can create a place for her to go and have her own independent play time?

Take her in the car to the market and point to all the veggies and fruits and have her learn words and colors (we have a ball doing that...and I don't care if it bothers other patrons)

If you are in the kitchen: put a few towels on the floor and a little plastic bin...something you can soak your feet in, or something that is shallow. Add 1 cup of water and put some plastic spoons and floaty toys and let your baby play. they love water and find it so interesting. It'll be messy, but it's water.

Get on your floor/carpet for 30 minutes and lie down. Your child will crawl on you and you can exercise and play with her at the same time.

Sit in front of her on the floor and sing the itsy bitsy spider...with the hand gestures and everything...and get really animated (I'm a total ham). If you're tired of that song, do the alphabet, row-row-row your boat, twinkle twinkle little star...whatever you do, sing and do animations with it, cause your baby will be totally attentive and eventually she'll do what you did (I just recently saw my daughter do the otsy bitsy spider while I sung it as I cleaned house. SO COOL!!)

Activity tables are great!

Water tables are great!

roll a ball back and forth to her

Teach her to put things in a basket or garbage: I ask my daughter to help me put the magazines and papers that should go in the garbage to 'put them in the garbage'...once she learned she's SO eager to bring things to me to get approval to put in the garbage, it's so great!

Start pointing to things around the house and say "what's this?" then answer slowly whatever it is "this is a table!" (careful with the work clock and fox and fork...they end up saying something R rated - lol)

Point is, there are tons of things to do with your little one. T.V. is helpful for educational shows...but just think what all the Moms did before television...they had it hard didn't they?  BUt I think they formed a great bond with their child because of the interaction they had with their babies, and I know we can too.

Good luck!

the wonders of technology!  My girl is like that, to a point.  I always have the tv on, and it's a great distraction while cleaning.  But what has helped me is taking her outside, even if it's a few mins to break that "trance" you can get.  I don't know where you live, but maybe you can take her daily to the park or even to the mall as a way to get away.  I know I struggled with her in finding things to do, but I love the outdoors, and the park always worked for me.  Like I said, even a few mins can do a heap of good.  One thing, if you don't make tv a big deal, as she gets older she will certainly be interested in other things.  My girl now watches shows in the am, but then plays in her room for hours or we go out for several hours...Good Luck!

I am the same way. The TV is usually on in my house even if I'm not watching it. My son at about 12 months started watching TV. Thankfully, I only let him watch Sesame Street over and over again. By the time he was 15 months old, he was repeating the letters and numbers that is on the program.

Like everyone said, just limit the TV time. If you just want noise in the house, turn the radio on.... much much better for babies..especially classical music.

I agree with the other ladies. T.V is fine for a while but sometimes it is better to be off completely then she won't be distracted by it. Maybe clean up while the T.V is on then spend some time with her what she likes, reading or walking to park or playing with her with it off. She will soon forget it then and hopefully will be hungry enough to eat and tired enough to have her nap when you can clean up again or put your feet up. lol I am sure there must be some advice articles on activities for this age. I wish I could steer you to them but hope you have a lovely day with her.

hey there,

my little one is nearly one and does the same thing when in his high chair, he strains to see past me if the tv is on.  We limit his tv to 1hour - 1/2 in morning-1/2 at end of the day. 

like most babies he has plenty of toys to keep him occupied however he can get bored easily so give him other things to play with like for instance the entire week junk mail(dont forget to take those staples out)he loves to tear them up and throw them around.....boxes and more boxes....i collect all different types ..he loves to sit in some lol......i collect fabric samples and he loves to play with those

 Imagination and with very little money u can keep them occupied  24/7

rue

Hey, this may be wrong but its what i think..

I think tv is fine but not to much and i think educational shows are better such as dora, blues clues ect cos they are learnign things at the same time.Id just try to cut out te tv as much as possible.Perhaps put her on the flor with toys or put her in a walker.If she is always watching the tv then thats all your daughter is going to want to do.I think 1hr of her show time is plenty and if you are watching tv and she is up then thats fine.

I cant really help on this one but i think just try different things like toys,she will soon forget about the tv.Its probly just beacuse of her age and she is interested in al the colours and singing and it entertains her.

Dannii xxo