Yeah, a dog bigger than about 20 pounds jumping up on me or barking in my face will freak me out.

In a perfect world, no one's pet would initiate contact with me, ever. I dig that it's not a perfect world, and it's my job to keep them off me. I appreciate it when it's an easy job, though. If I had to consider keeping a dog off my kid I'd probably just not visit, though. That seems like a full time occupation.

If Ollie is the kind of doggie that would knock over a toddler, I would put him away when one came over as a matter of course. One of our cats is cranky, and we put her away if there are kids too young to understand not to pet her. For she WILL bite you, oh yes. If it was a regular thing like game night, I'd make a deal, like maybe you trade off-they only bring the kid every other time or or something like that.

David, for the most part I agree, but I don't think formality has anything to do with it. It's a scheduled event - these people know that game night is coming up and they know that they don't want Ollie around the baby. Common courtesy says they can give Aimee and Joe a call at any time during the week to ask if they'd mind keeping Ollie out of the room when they're there. Springing it on them at the front door is rude no matter how reasonable the request.

Springing it on them at the front door is rude no matter how reasonable the request.

Yes. This. Also the bit about the TV is NOT reasonable. And also if the kid and dog are unmixy, they should offer to take a turn at hosting. And get a sitter on occasion.

My biggest problem was that THEY asked US to host the thing knowing a) the kind of dog Ollie is and b) that they have a baby.

And honestly? The dog stuff I get. It's annoying the way they handle it, but I do get it. Ollie's annoying, but it's for ten minutes when people get here and then we're at the table and usually, he goes to sleep on the couch and typically isn't a bother. It's the stuff with MY child that really grates me. Today it was "block the tv". The last time they were over, they asked us to put the tv IN EMELINE'S ROOM.

The last time they were over, they asked us to put the tv IN EMELINE'S ROOM.

Okay, that's funny. Funny stupid.

Which said to me, "Please lock up your child."

Block the television because the baby isn't "allowed" to watch tv.

Ryan doesn't watch TV either, not until he's two (in twenty days!). It's recommended by the Australian Paediatrics Association or such like. But it's not like he's never seen the goggle box in action.

There are claims by Baby Einstein and such like that their DVDs help kids' development; there've been sttudies that find the reverse, that kids under two who watch a lot of television have smaller vocabularies and may be more likely to develop attention span issues. This is tricky to investigate, though; the amount of TV watching is correlated with other factors that affect language development, such as the parents' income and education. You need to control for those factors. Yett other studies don't find any negative effect from TV after controlling for such things.

The main thing I get out of that is that the important thing is not the negative ("no TV") but the positive - children develop language by interacting with real people, not the TV. The most important thing for parents is to talk and read to their children; that has a greater impact than their viewing habits.

Nonetheless, Ryan doesn't watch TV right now; but I'm not going to be fussed if we go to someone's house and they have it on. (Anyway, he notices, but it doesn't monopolise his attention.) And we have some Baby Einstein vids for him now (including an animal vid!), for his second birthday. I think I'll watch them with him.

(This is all off the point, the parents have the right to enforce a no TV rule with their kid. I think there's zero developmental difference between no TV and minimal TV, but it's their kid. And Aims and Joe have the right to enforce a "no no-TV kid" rule in their house. But I don't really have anything to add to that, I just find the child development stuff interesting.)

This brings up a question I have about tv behavior.

I don't own one. I see WAY too much tv on the computer...and I love it all.

However, I've never been one to have a tv on when people are around...I don't even like playing music during a dinner party when I expect people to be conversing.

The last several doggy lama appointments I've had, the television was on when I arrived and was left on as we worked. Now, these people are paying me a hefty sum to share a ton of information with them about problems that are vexing them.

It doesn't make sense to me that I have to ask them to turn it off. Most times, I don't say anything until it becomes obvious that they aren't paying attention. But, even in those cases, it is most likely that only the sound will be turned down and the picture left on.

My former bff had a HUGE television that was on every waking moment of the day. Is this a common practice?

I wonder because of the prevalence of tvs in restaurants and bars, etc. Is it that people are just used to having it on all the time?