Watching YouTube before bed

[Grooveisintheheartnahnahnahnah]

Not sure if this is not a problem to do and I’m being precious.
Dp and I alternate toddler DD’s bedtime (turns 3 in the summer)
We do pjs, teeth, bath some night, stories etc. Dd normally takes a while to go to sleep and often faffs about and walks around the room, eventually getting into bed and falling asleep. I generally cuddle up to her, maybe sing and pretend to be asleep myself.
Dp watches YouTube videos with her on his phone..children’s ones, but usually bright, crazy ones about slime or Lego etc.
She watches a small amount of tv in the day (CBeebies or milkshake) and generally sieges the rest of the day in the garden, out in the woods walking our dog, at the beach or playing etc.
Do you think it’s ok for her at that age to be watching that much, especially before bed?

Oh ds is fine btw no harm done

We let our dd watch the kindle before bed, she goes to sleep brilliantly afterwards. I'm the same, i read new son my phone before i fall to sleep.

[quote Grooveisintheheartnahnahnahnah]@PerspicaciousGreen How to make that transition though? She won’t go to sleep on her own and to walk out and leave her, she’d just get upset 😬really not sure how to go about it[/quote]
I know this isn't the case for all children, but I've realised that our son does much better with "From now on, we do X" than salami tactics. All the "gradual" stuff was just confusing him. We just promoted him to a bed and changed his bedtime routine in one fell swoop rather than keeping the routine the same for a bit to "ease the transition" then having another round of changes. He was fine with it.

I don't really have any experience with this particular problem, but two things that spring to mind are:

1. Letting her choose something new and cool to do quietly by herself before sleep so she's excited
2. Just popping out to "check on the dog" for longer and longer periods. This was fab for us during potty training.

I don't understand this. I've always just put DD to bed. If you had always done it she wouldn't have all these expectations.

Why can't he just read to her, I would not be happy with screens in the bedroom

But you know, it really is your choice. At the moment you're choosing that you would prefer to spend however long petting your daughter to sleep each night. That's OK. You're allowed to choose that. But own that choice.

I knew someone who was still breastfeeding her 2yo and I cringed every time I saw it. It was not an ongoing loving relationship, it was him tantruming in public and grabbing her top while she tried to distract him or negotiate with him and eventually snapped and resentfully let him have "just this once". She clearly wanted to stop but allowed herself to be held hostage by a toddler. I've definitely chosen an easy life with my kids sometimes, but having seen that I try to do it cheerfully!

@PerspicaciousGreen Is breastfeeding a 2 year old cringey though?

We’ve always just cuddled up with her in bed until she goes to sleep, I guess they’re only little for so long and she’s massively independent and becoming more grown up in lots of ways now..I just have to think how to do it carefully, without it upsetting her

@RosieLemonade Everyone I know does bedtimes differently 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️I’m guessing that’s pretty normal

Having a nice time BF your 2yo as an expression of maternal love and closeness isn't cringey.

Clearly not wanting to do something so intimate with your own body but being tantrummed into doing it because you won't just say no... that makes my skin crawl at how I would feel to be suckled against my will like that.

My point was that you might well choose to carry on parenting to sleep for a while, but do it because you want to and don't spend that time every night feeling guilty or resentful.

@PerspicaciousGreen Ahh ok, got it! Yes, that’s something else 😬

No, we’re ok with if for now, know it won’t be forever, but we’ll have to gradually start making changes soon, as it feels almost time

@MilduraS I haven’t seen that 🤔 will look into it, thank you. My hope was that she has stories and just falls asleep after the imaginative input they offer, but perhaps I’m being old fashioned and unrealistic 🤣never had any off this when I was little, just a Mr men book read to me and tucked in to sleep.

Some competitive parenting going on in this thread. From two, dd normally did some calming yoga and read herself an improving story before falling asleep like an angel. Of course she never watched screens apart from the odd David Attenborough documentary, and spent the rest of the day geocaching, practising the piano and volunteering so she was tired out by bedtime.

I think I would do the videos a little earlier maybe an hour before bed and then do stories afterwards to help her wind down before sleep, sort of swap it around if that makes sense

If I'm honest tho if your DP enjoys this time with your little one and there aren't any problems I'd probably just leave them be, I think it's lovely that they have that special time

@GlutenFreeGingerCake

Some competitive parenting going on in this thread. From two, dd normally did some calming yoga and read herself an improving story before falling asleep like an angel. Of course she never watched screens apart from the odd David Attenborough documentary, and spent the rest of the day geocaching, practising the piano and volunteering so she was tired out by bedtime.

:o

OP it's fine.

The benefits of having loving memories cuddled up with her daddy laughing, watching slime videos before bed will far outway any supposed "damage" a little screen time will do.

I wouldn't give it another thought.

@GlendaSugarbeanIsJudgingYou Do you think? See I couldn’t quite decide as I do love that they enjoy that and felt bad for mentioning to him 😬
Maybe if they scale it down and just watch a couple of them? I think it was more the content, as the recent ones were all bright and loud 🤣they do my head in, so I was worried what it was doing to hers.
Previously they watched a couple of bedtime songs or animals doing funny things 🙄

When my children were small I calmed everything down before bed. Low lights, radio on low, a wee story together. Then bed and sleep, it usually worked. YouTube or TV especially if excitable programmes would just stimulate them. CBBs has a nice wee program that looks like puppets going to bed, unfortunately I cannot mind the name but it's on at around 6.30 pm. I watch it with my grandchild and they laugh, Granny keeps saying it all looks so cosy and soft that Granny wants to sleep too.

Well, that's because you don't enjoy them. I don't either. :o

If she was jumping on the bed and running around after watching them I would agree but you say she goes to sleep fine, if not a little later?

If it gets to the point where you notice a difference in her the next day I would step in but for now, just let it be their little thing.