Really helpful hint.

[hopeful]

This should probably go under another topic, but this has really helped our family. Our adhd 7yo is on imipramine and buspar for his adhd/anxiety.

My son's school had tv free week last week. We also made it tv, playstation 2, gameboy, computer game free week. It wasn't as though we didn't already limit use the games and tv. However, there has been a HUGE difference with my son's adhd symtoms. Yes, he's still complaining about no SpongeBob, but he really isn't complaining that much. I've never liked the computer games, but I finally got my husband to agree to put them all out of site. We also unpluged our living room tv. My husband likes playstation 2 and SpongeBob, so it may have been hard for him to give them up, but he wouldn't admit it.

Life has been great the past 2 weeks. It isn't an easy decission to make, but we're going to try and stick with it. Maybe after a month we'll start to ease tv back in, but for now I'm happy with the radio for my news and music.

[HooDunnit]

I agree with you completely. It's good when both parents agree. The problem in my family is that I pack up some of this stuff and put it away, but my wife pulls it back out. She likes to watch TV too -- to relax. So then they all think I am mean. Kids can be pros at going up the middle.

[Linda]

Let us know if it continues to work for you...I can;t even imagine going without TV.

[dfp]

We ended up doing this at the end of last summer. My adhd son couldn't transition from tv on to tv off, so he would end up watching ALL DAY LONG, no breaks. Ugh.

Furthermore, he would go absolutely nuts if we had to turn it off for any reason, so getting dressed was a fight, meals were fights, going to the market was a fight, etc. I finally had it and turned the thing off for good. I was absolutely amazed at how well my kids took it. They barely asked for it-- I think they had bored themselves so much that it was a relief to have it a non-issue.

Now we allow tv on sick days and snow days, and they can watch at friend's houses. I don't want to make it something they feel like they need to sneak.


So yes, wonderful suggestion! I really wish my kids could handle a moderate level of tv but at this stage (they're 6 & 7) they can't. So it's now a non-issue.

dfp