[xafke]

Author here (surreal to see my post at the top of HN!)

My kids are 3 and 2, and they don't watch TV like adults. They watch a bit of movie, get up, walk around, do something else, come back, and watch a bit of another movie or even switch to a TV show. It's weird!

I like your idea about flexibility, but they're too young right now. Maybe we'll introduce your "bank" concept when they get older or increase the "TV budget". But for now we stick to 2x 30 minutes.

[Freak_NL]

> […] but they're too young right now.

Indeed they are. I have a five year old who is now old enough to choose his own films and series from a selection curated by us. A system like this would be fine for children of his age.

But 2 and 3? They are too young to choose their own media at all. Not because they can't, but because they can't judge the impact. For toddlers you really want to be the one in control about what they watch (and that horrible Bing can die in a tragic bunny bonfire).

The Lion King, Wall-E? That's just overloading them at that age (and both are rated 6+ in the Netherlands). You can start with those at 5 or so depending on the child, or later if you've noticed them reacting too intensely to films rated 6+. For now? Stick with shorts suitable for their age, and move on to films (like Ghibli's Ponyo) at 4 or 5 as a special treat.

Autonomy is all fine and well, but screens have an enormous impact on developing children. This is a really cool project, but you might want to reflect on how their brains are developing and what you as a parent can do to guide them.

[nsteel]

Both The Lion King and Wall-E are rated universal in the UK.

My point is that these things are subjective. I get this unsolicited advice is coming from a good place but it's just your random opinion. Let's leave the parenting up to the parent.

[sethammons]

Ain't overloading nothing. My favorite movie at 5 was Romancing the Stone. Anything non-age appropriate goes right over your head at that age. We are not talking scary nor violent. I liked the movie because of the crocodiles

[Freak_NL]

Also, given that they understand Dutch, get them on to Buurman en Buurman! (The excellent stop motion Pat & Mat from Czechia). That's something which works well even at 3.

[tasuki]

Fun fact, the original has no dialogue. I think only the Dutch version is dubbed.

[Freak_NL]

Due to a quirk of history the Dutch version got dubbed initially as an attempt to create an edgier version of Pat and Mat when it was aired within the framework of a quite progressive block of children's television in the Netherlands. But the result of two professional comedians ad-libbing dialogue for these silent shorts was so absurdly successful that they've been doing that ever since.

It is unique. There is no guarantee that this would work in any other language unless you found two voice actors with the same level of natural skill and collaboration (I'm sure it must have been tried). You can't write out the dialogue in Czech, translate it, and have it dubbed in various languages; the ad-libbing seems essential, and I'm sure any attempt to replicate this would fail if you didn't get two actors who not only completely grok the show and its protagonists, but also know how to apply the local tropes of this type of character correctly.

But it works. There are few countries where Pat & Mat are as popular as the Netherlands. In fact, it's probably only Czechia itself which tops that. It's not that Pat & Mat were lacking anything — the silent shorts are brilliant in their own right — but the Dutch dub adds another layer of humour which so completely matches the feel of the characters in the show that it doesn't detract at any point. A lot of Dutch don't even know that it is only here where a dub is used, and that the affable dialogue added was never intended!

The only weird and regrettable thing (for a variation of a Czech show) is that you have to understand spoken Dutch to get it.

[tasuki]

Very interesting, I had no idea!

[monkeydust]

> "It's weird"

Not that weird I think... my 5 year old does exactly this. He cant sit through a full movie. My 7 year old also had that issue but now she can.

[oezi]

I have learned that doing just weekends for TV is much better for small kids so they don't get used to TV watching.

[dudul]

Even for not so small kids. With my 7 and 9 yo we do one ~30/40min session during the weekend, and a family movie on the 1st weekend of the month. No TV or screen time outside of these.

I can't imagine having a 3yo watching TV 1 hour a day, especially the movies shown on this video.

That being said, to focus on the technical project, that's very cool!

[Salgat]

We only do TV on the weekends (Miss Rachel mostly, sometimes a movie), but 1 hour a day seems like nothing considering they're in daycare learning and playing for 8+ hours among the many other things they're doing throughout the day. For me the issue is when it becomes a dependency for them.

[peterleiser]

Yes, we also switched to TV only on weekends.

[mbs159]

Totally normal for kids of such age. A 5-7 year old maybe could sit through a whole movie, but only if it would be engaging for him.