about the amount of TV my kids watch

[deliverdaniel]

I have two DC's aged nearly 4 and nearly 7. I feel as though they watch too much TV and want to cut down a bit for various reasons (not enough time to do other stuff/ starting to say other stuff is 'boring' and my older DC doesn't read for pleasure even though he is a good reader etc) They do enjoy other games- lego/ outings/ imaginary play/ art etc and the eldest is doing well in school (youngest hasn't started yet) so I don't think it's terrible, but still...

They have about half an hour in the morning before school, then about 1 hour in the evening before bed (weekdays) . Weekends they have about an hour in the morning, my eldest has an hour of ipad at lunchtime while youngest (and we) take a nap or get a break and then an hour before bed.

Apologies that I'm sure this has been asked a million times before.

Does this sound like a lot to you? How much TV/ screen time do your young DC have? Thanks

It doesn't sound like too much, like most things watching TV is fine in moderation.

Ours have 2-3h some days (mostly weekends if we're watching a movie) and none at all other days. Your screen time sounds very reasonable, not excessive but not overly restrictive.

The boys earn points for household chores - sorting laundry, emptying and restacking the dishwasher, feeding & watering & cleaning chickens - and then points are changed to minutes for screen time (games, TC shows, whatever they want to watch). If they want to watch a 30min thing, they have to have 30 points or they have to do some jobs until they do! Homework requiring computer access isn't charged unless we think they're taking the piss (so DS1 was allowed unlimited time in minecraft to recreate the Great Pyramid of Giza and the sphinx, then research how to record his "guided tour", and DS2 was charged when the "maths homework" turned out to be web based games with only a tenuous link to numbers). We've been using this system since they were 5 and it's still working well.

Exceptions are whole family films which are "free" and Vsauce because we all love watching it :)

thansk for all the good advice. Esp pp who suggested making before bed time with a book a treat. I think that would work well for DS1. He used to absolutely adore books and would look at them for hours (before he could read) but somehow it's turned into work rather than fun time. Also love the points system too.

WE are on day 2 of no tv in the morning. Day 1 was hideous but today was actually amazing. They played/ read/ did their own thing. Hope it's not a blip!

Ours have too much screen time but it's not something that overly bothers me. I don't like the TV on before school but I'll put the radio on instead. They'll watch a couple of hours after school but will have enough of it after a while and play outside.