If your child only wants to watch cartoons

First, you need to understand that children do not sit down and put on cartoons themselves, their parents teach them to do this. It’s super convenient - turn on a cartoon or give the tablet to the baby and let them do their own thing. Not only parents end up suffering from this, but the child themselves. For children under 3 years of age, it is not recommended to watch cartoons or play computer games. Of course it’s convenient, but a child does not properly develop either imagination or thinking skills, and the fact that they know how to turn off ads and find the right cartoon is not an admirable skill.

Parents should take their choice of activities for their child very seriously, and over time, your baby will learn to come up with activities themselves. However, this doesn’t mean they won’t get bored.

Moms and dads get tired, but still feel like bad parents, feel guilty when their child is bored. If this happens, it doesn’t mean that you are a bad parent and not helping your child develop. Feeling bored is normal.

If you drop everything to entertain your child, then you will simply extinguish boredom and get angry at the baby, instead of doing other important things. It’s in these situations that cartoons come in handy. This is a “magic pill”. But it can only help you for a while, until you begin to notice that the baby is not interested in anything other than cartoons.

What to do?

The fact is that a child does not know how to independently find something to do, and how to cope with boredom. A child will wait and demand you entertain them if you don’t leave them alone and let them be bored.

It’s not hard to distinguish between the desire for your attention and inability to do something with something. If your baby has not seen you for a long time, they are bored and may require attention from you. But if you played with them for several hours, and now you want to go about your business, and they demand you continue playing or cartoons, this means that they do not know how to handle boredom.

Parents need to stop blaming themselves for being bad parents if their child is bored. Let them get bored. No cartoons if they’ve already watched them and simply couldn’t find something else to do. Maybe not immediately, but they will be able to find something.

Play with your child, help them learn when you have time, do not forget to pay enough attention to them, but it is also important for them to get bored and do things without your involvement during their free time.

But don’t think that cartoons can’t be watched at all. Cartoons can be watched, but at any age this should be done in a small doses. If your kids are not 3 years old yet, then it should contain a simple and understandable story, approved by you in advance.

Choose a specific time for cartoons, start the tradition of watching cartoons. Your kid should not watch them all day.

Choose cartoons wisely, discuss them, and don’t just turn them on for your child to “kill time”. Think about the meaning of the cartoon, what it teaches, what kind of parental image is shown in the cartoon, how positive the characters are. Be sure to watch the cartoon yourself, and then turn it on for your baby. If you are watching a cartoon or a fairy tale for the first time together, then discuss it, ask if your kid understood this or that scene.

Keep in mind that negative and incomprehensible feelings are also necessary and useful for a child. If we talk about boredom, don’t worry that your child won’t find something to do. Recommend which games they should play, give them some tasks and assignments, ask to complete household chores, push them, inspire creativity, provide them free access to toys and children's books, but don’t do the work for them and do not put on cartoons too often.

Be attentive to your child and love them!