Among unschoolers there is much discussion about how much limiting should be done with things like television, video games, candy. The three main vices that parents worry about (for younger kids, at least). I wrote this on a local unschooling list that I am on in response to a question about setting limits on these three-

"Seems like a lot of the discussions I've heard about letting kids set
their own limits focuses on older kids and teenagers, and I'm wondering
if people let their kids decide all these things from the very
beginning, or if they started them out with some limits and let them
take over more decision making as they got older"

I wanted to add that yes, I did start when my kids were very young. They are now still young, 81/2 and 5 1/2 and we have the same kind of scenario that Jenny described. Candy left after a couple of days, kids jumping up from the TV to play a game together that was inspired by the TV and no one flinches when I turn it off. When we talk about allowing kids to set their own limits, there tends to be this image of a small child sitting alone in a room with a bag of candy and the TV blaring, some sort of summer vacation gone awry, no one venturing outside and no one eating an apple, ever. But what really is going on is there are respectful adults around who are loving and care about the children and offering support. I wouldn't suggest giving your child his or her own limits if you are only going to sit on the sidelines and say over and over "this will never work. I don't believe this will work." You have to let go of that kind of thinking- I mean really let go of it. No eye rolling. No "I told you so's"- not to a child, a husband, a wife. Try it out. That's what we're talking about here. Really trying it out because it feels good to you and you trust that it will be OK. My experience has been that if you don't believe it will be OK, it probably won't.

Not to say that I don't have issues with some of these things. I have learned a lot from approaching things from this perspective of trust and support and continuing to work at it from this point of reference. That is what I am suggesting because it is all a work in process.