Interview: Why Tanya's Quitting Parenting TV
 It's been a year since we last spoke to her, but things have moved on a lot for TV's Dr Tanya Byron. She's written a new book and her comedy TV show with Jennifer Saunders launches on the BBC this Autumn. Here, she tells Raisingkids.co.uk why she's moving on to pastures new and what made her decide not to film any more parenting programmes.
RK: You're currently promoting a new DVD series product, 1-2-3 DVD. There are 12 titles in this range, is one of them a particular favourite?
TB: Ice Age is a fantastic film. The twelve titles are good and a lot of the films have a nice message whether it's about the environment or history, but for us it's definitely Ice Age. I remember my son said to me when he was about four – 'Mummy, you're a very shrewd mammal'. I thought my child is genius until I realised it was straight from the movie.
RK: Parents are always being warned against too much TV – what are your views?
TB: Well, I'm strict in the sense that my kids (Lily 11 and Jack 8) have a certain amount of time and that's it. But the truth is we live in an age where television is part of our environment and it can be a positive or negative influence depending on how we as parents manage it. That's the same for anything – do you let your kids eat sweets or play computer games? There are a lot of parents out there who get terribly anxious about things like this. But I think you know me, my view on anything to do with parenting is for parents just to relax and not to feel they have to fit a certain prescriptive way of bringing up their kids. There's a lot of that going on right now – parenting has become so popular as a genre.
| 'I'm not going to be all moralistic and say it's terrible because that's not how life works.' |
RK: So is television OK in small doses?
TB: The truth about television is that it's there – parents use it as a way of entertaining their children, they use it as a way of enjoying time with their children and also – if we're honest – parents use it as a way of keeping their kids occupied while they're trying to do other things. And I'm not going to be all moralistic and clinical and say 'it's terrible and not what we should be doing, because that's not how life works.'
RK: What about the expert who said that children under 3 shouldn't watch any TV?
TB: I think any statement like that comes from a research perspective and is useful in that it gets people to think about the issue. But the reality is that you have to balance all this sort of stuff against the reality of your life. I do think television is used too much as an electronic nanny and I do think that some children are left in front of the television all day every day and that's wrong. But I think there are some programmes on TV which are very educational for children and do help them learn things in a different way and if parents think about the programmes their children watch and how they might interact with their children when they're watching it, that's a good thing.
RK: Is it a question of balance?
TB: Under the age of three when they're linguistically, cognitively developing at a huge rate, if the majority of what children do is watch TV then that's not a good thing. They have to have a multi-sensory, developmental experience and watching TV is one aspect of that, but reading books, going outside and climbing trees, running in the mud, making collages, counting on their fingers with their mum and dad, singing songs and so on are all part of that experience so there has to be a balance.
'And that's why I'm not making parenting television programmes any more...'
Click here to read the second part of our interview with Dr Tanya Byron
 1-2-3 DVDs were released in the UK on 21 May 2007. Each DVD costs £7.99 with titles ranging from Anatasia and Dr Doolittle, to Ferngully and Robots.
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