No TV till homework is done works for my 7 year old. The 3 year old has no homework.

orchid_notebook_1431 Oct 2026

The rule at home is simple: TV after homework. My 7 year old accepts it, mostly. The 3 year old has no homework, so as far as she's concerned TV is available from the moment she gets home. So at 5 pm the little one is watching cartoons and the elder one is at the dining table doing sums, hearing every cartoon and telling me it's unfair. She's not wrong. I don't want to invent fake homework for a 3 year old. I also don't want to switch off the small one's TV just because her sister has work. How do people keep rules fair when the kids are at completely different stages?

4 comments

breezy_wave_78051 Oct 2026
I was the younger one in exactly this fight, with my chettan. Amma's answer was simple: TV off for both until both were 'done'. My homework was colouring and I took it very seriously :) Worked till he reached high school.
maple_diary_94331 Oct 2026
I look after my niece, who's 9, so I only have the one child to referee. Reading this though, I'd lean towards the both-off idea in the first comment. A 3 year old doesn't really understand homework. She understands that her sister is sitting at the table with something important, and she'll want her own important thing too.
velvet_pool_56641 Oct 2026
Different rooms. Works until they find each other haha
ivory_piano_22272 Oct 2026
We have the same age gap. What helped us was moving the little one's TV slot to before the elder gets home, so it isn't happening in front of him. By the time homework starts, TV is already over for the day for everyone. The rules aren't identical, but nobody has to watch the other one get something.