Ok - help us out here - 13mo and TV power button.

[Beyond Blessed]

Are many of you groaning in sympathy? Please tell me I'm not the only one. Dd2 (13mo) has discovered the power button. (play sad music here). Ugh. With our other three we would have smacked hand, removed from area, and smacked hand as soon as she touched it again. Of course it never really worked - we just repeated it a lot. And, of course, now we've agreed to parent with more grace. First, re-direction to toys or playing with either dh, myself, ds1, dd1. Nothing helped. Dh wanted to slip back and smack her hand. I finally helped him see that she was not being defiant and disobedient - she had discovered a new skill - she could make a picture go away and come back. She was proud. He put her in the pack and play for a minute and had to repeat that a few times - of course that didn't work and I finally had him agree to stop it. We ended up just putting the Lego table in front of the TV. She's fine now, playing with Legos. We are all in the room watching Extreme Home MakeOver as a family - so leaving the TV area is not really an option. I'm worried about when she discovers that she can push the Lego table out of the way (it's not heavy at all).

I know ya'll wouldn't have done a time out - but I was really trying to have dh see that wouldn't help either. I didn't like it and don't want to use it. What would you mamas have done?

[milkmommy]

We bought a TV guard that prevents little fingers from turning it off that gives us our sanity back :giggle then we redirrected when she tried going near it, she learned and once she got smart enough to remove the guard she still left it alone.

Deanna

[AmyDoll]

Can you let her turn it on when it's time and off when it's time? And tell her that it's not time yet but when it is time she can do it?
We did stuff like that with Sam - he helps me use the phone to call my mom and I show him which buttons to push. And he helps me with the remote control for the TV and the DVD player.

[hsgbdmama]

Ah yes ... we're going through it with ds2 (he's also figured out how to work the remotes :rolleyes2 ). Stating it, and stating it a second time while moving him away and redirecting him are working. It takes patience, persistence and consistency.

AmyDoll -- we did try "letting" him turn it on and then off again, but then he figures we want him to do that **constantly** (no), so we dropped that very quickly. :giggle

[Amber]

Ah, yes...BTDT, and ds would still be doing it if we let him :giggle I cut a piece of cardboard and put that over the buttons on the TV, and we only used the remote. That worked for quite a while, until the tape lost it's stickiness from us having to take it off a couple of times. Then we bought a clear plastic guard to put in front of the TV. DS will occasionally try to stick his had behind the guard, but he does pretty well with it.

[ArmsOfLove]

We did the tv guard thing when we realized ds was determined :shifty I did try to teach him how to do it to help me and that worked with my other two, but he just wanted to push the buttons :P So the guard was $10 at Babies R Us and he tried a couple times to get behind him and I prevented it totally, and then he moved on to something else :tu

[Irene]

the guard never worked for us... :shrug I have found that the tv on means the kids try even harder to get our attention :blush so they get loud and stand right in front of it and turn it off and on...

basically, we just record everything and watch it when they are in bed :shifty not worth getting up every 20 seconds to try to "distract" them because that didnt work either :shifty :shrug

[milkmommy]

the guard never worked for us...

just wondering did it not work because they figured out how to remove it on because it caused them to fuss more. The one we have was made by my uncle and the TV's bottom part literly sits in the guards even the adults cant get it open, there is a hinged joint toward the back if we need to, we just use the remote she now knows that joint is in back and can kinda wiggle her self and with work get it undone it we moved the st a little more into the corner it wouldn't be an issue. I told him he needs to patten his design :giggle
We 'splurged" on our cable we get it free with our appartment but we added on enough to get the DVD player prerecording does work soo much better :rockon

Deanna

[Irene]

oh ours isnt that fancy! its just a flimsy plastic thing, that you can turn on just by bumping into it :rolleyes so they can turn it off from the outside of the guard and they can pull it out and stick their fingers in there too :shrug

yeah we have DVR, we got it before kids, I think it saved our marriage :shifty :giggle and now that we have kids I find it very valuable :)

[Beyond Blessed]

I remember we used to have one of those plastic guards - I guess it worked with the boys for awhile (Crystal - lol - it was *my* Aidan that was the biggest button pusher too! :giggle). Dh is about to make a built in TV cabinet/movie/toy cabinet and that will permanently solve our problem (raising the TV to "out of toddler" height) - but I have another month till that will happen probably. Going to have to try the guard. Thanks guys - I had totally forgotten about that thing!

[milkmommy]

oh ours isnt that fancy! its just a flimsy plastic thing, that you can turn on just by bumping into it roll eyes so they can turn it off from the outside of the guard and they can pull it out and stick their fingers in there too don't know
:lol yea we had one of those for a bit it worked for about 20 mintues kinda like the toliet paper guard :rolleyes

Deanna

[AKCristyMJ]

Oh forget wasting $10 on some advertized guard lol!! :rolleyes2

Just do what my mom and I did.....get any cap of almost any size, the plastic cap to your milk jugs, shampoo, jars, soda bottles....anything, kwim?
Then get some strong clear scotch tape.....put a cap over each button and tape across it.

THEN make sure to buy a few toys maybe that do have buttons to press.
Ya gotta realize from their POV this quite exciting to do, to work ones little fingers to press something and something happens to that big box of pics and sound.....better yet mom or dad always gets up and comes to me when I do it, how fun!! Like magic!! lol :laughtears

We have this fantastic Sesame Street toy that albeit it's plastic and battery but real small, like book size, and not noisy too much....but it has all these little buttons on it, ones you press, or turn or what not. A sound and light comes on when you do.
This toy has helped both my dd;s not fuss when I sealed up those oh so fun buttons on the TV lol.

[raisa]

My DS loves to press the button but then screams because the TV is off. It's like he wants to do it, then can't deal with the fact that it's done. Kind of amusing and a good lesson in how he's too little to understand mutually exclusive alternatives -- he doesn't get that "off" means "not on."

So far it's worked for us to redirect, move toys in front of it, and be sure he's sitting a little ways back from teh screen. We moved the DVD player to this weird position behind the tv, because he kept turning it off and I'd have to re-load a DVD which I hate!

[Irene]

we tried taping things, but they can take the tape right off :shrug

we also try alternative toys, but its not good enough unless it actually holds attention of adults too :shifty like, I gave them my old cell phone because they always wanted to play with it when it was working. nope, not good enough, gotta play with the new one! :lol old remotes, nope, doesnt actually turn the tv off and on, not good enough :lol

[OpalsMom]

We don't watch TV, but for the stereo (and the volume knob! even better than the power button! You can make the floor shake!) we redirected until somebody (her or us) got tired of it, and then gated it off with some SuperYard panels so she couldn't get close to it. Rinse, lather, repeat next time we are all in the living room with the stereo. After about 10 of those (at about 10 redirections each), she understood the rule. Whether or not this works for the TV will depend on whether it's higher than the gates, of course... And I still can't let her stand next to the stereo for a prolonged period without reminding her of the rule, because even now (at almost 2), she will become overcome by temptation eventually.

[AKCristyMJ]

Irene, your 13mo old can pull of strong clear Scotch tape?? Even if you layer it on too maybe??
:jawdrop
Wow!

Well we also had a toy box we moved in front of the TV area. That helped. Within about a week she forgot bout the TV buttons.
I also love giving my dd;s old unhooked keyboards cuz they love those buttons....gotta watch em tho so they don't pull them out.

:shrug good luck

[milkmommy]

like, I gave them my old cell phone because they always wanted to play with it when it was working. nope, not good enough, gotta play with the new one! laughing
:giggle Thats Cecilia like with my new camera I gave her the old non working one, nope not good enough must use new one, old remotes that do nothing?? :rolleyes2 forget it, something must happen... :laughtears

Deanna