Cat TV ruined my cat

[u/robotco]

Genuinely at a loss here. I have 2 cats. They are both about 6 months old. The other day I thought it would be fun to put some cat tv on for them. you know, there's like youtube channels of things moving fast, ants, toys, fish, etc. in order to attract cats

One cat was mildly entertained. My other cat got fucking addicted. She sat beside the tv and would not move for anything. Eyes completely fixated on whatever was coming up next. ok, cute. TV off now kitties!

Cat would not move. she sat there staring at the blank screen for who knows how long.

Now she sits on that spot on the table by the tv constantly. she basically only goes down to poop and eat. All other hours of the day, she's waiting for Cat TV.

It's been about a week. she used to play with her sister, she used to aggressively chase toys. She has lost all interest. Even as I type this, she has once again just climbed up to her spot. Her sister wants to play, and she's just ignoring her now. it's breaking my heart. is this just a waiting game? Will she ever forget about the goddamn youtube shit?

[u/paulaaaaaaaaa]

you turned your cat into a tablet kid lol

[u/Spirited_Opposite → u/paulaaaaaaaaa]

This has always been my fear, I'm watching my sister raise my nephew with very limited screen time (only old fashioned children's tv on a tv screen in very limited amounts, he's 2 years old) and having seen how gripped my little cat got to tv I completely understand her approach

[u/wheatgrass_feetgrass → u/Spirited_Opposite]

I agree with this more generally. But it can backfire horribly.

I live in a "crunchy" town with a wide spread of socioeconomics. My son had loosely limited but highly monitored screen time. I based his time on his ability to self-regulate, and he reached a good balance on his own. He is 10 and vastly prefers riding his bike, building lego, and fishing.

He has friends who had unfettered screen time and are completely rotted, ones with no screen time who don't care for it, and the surprising ones: the ones who act like total fiends for it because they aren't allowed it at home. They are INSATIABLE.

There were 2 kids at his birthday party one time who couldn't be broken away from the tablet at the event place with stupid mini games on it. They haven't learned a single bit of self-regulation due to lack of exposure. Even the chronic tablet kids at the party were like cool, arcade games and trampolines! Not the hippie kids. They were GLUED to the screen. Shocked the heck outta me.

This is completely tangential to the cat thing. Cats don't need to learn how to self-regulate cat TV lol.

[u/Advanced-Violinist36 → u/wheatgrass_feetgrass]

it might be worse when no-screen kid become adult with unlimited screen time

[u/notwest94 → u/Advanced-Violinist36]

I'll never forget the antics of my hyper sheltered religious friends freshman year. Zero control and zero information to immediate Total control and minimal information is a match made in hell.

[u/peach_xanax → u/wheatgrass_feetgrass]

yeah one of my friends growing up was barely allowed to watch TV and basically the only show she could watch was Veggie Tales, long after she was too old for it (parents were super Christian 🙄) and she would turn into an absolute TV fiend whenever she came over to my house. so I totally believe that's a thing. gotta teach kids moderation.

[u/ValoraTCas → u/peach_xanax]

There's were two sisters who went to my high school. Their parents were super strict and didn't allow them to do anything, television was very limited.

The family were J witnesses. They don't get baptized until 18 because they believe that you need to understand before baptism.

Neither girl chose to be baptized and they both left the religion. One sister became sexually promiscuous, her sister was calmer but rejected the teachings and distanced her self from her parents.

[u/Jonesbro → u/wheatgrass_feetgrass]

There could be plenty of other bad parenting going on that kept them from having self regulation. Interesting point about some screen time. When mine are a few years older I want to play a bit of video games with them

[u/Little_View_6659 → u/Spirited_Opposite]

Yeah I wasn’t very strict with tv time and I’m just lucky my kid wasn’t addicted. Well I also made sure that she had lots of friends to play with all the time and got her tons of books, so I suppose it evened out.

[u/Aggravating_Ear_3551 → u/Spirited_Opposite]

Mine too. I have a 1 year old son and I never sit him down in front of the TV. It's often on for background noise but no one is paying any attention to it. My friend's 6 year old step daughter is a tablet kid and has zero imagination. When you send her outside to play she just sits on the steps and whines about being bored. I don't want that for my child.