To ask when did you start putting tv on for kids?

[AnxietyLevelMax]

at what age did you allow your toddlers/kids watch tv and for how long?
ds is 2 and doesnt watch anything and i am getting a vibe from relatives how i deprive him of childhood so maybe i am a bit unreasonable then but just dont see how it could benefit him at this age.

My daughter was 4, possibly 5 before she watched any TV or screens at all. I was very strict about it and didnt care a jot what my relatives thought about it cos i felt i was doing the right thing. My son was younger...about 3.

If you can hold off on introducing screens, do it.

6 months old I'd put Thomas and his friends on as I noticed DS drifted off to sleep when he was on so I'd pop a video on at the beginning of nap time and leave it on quitely whilst I got on with other stuff.

six months plus I used to watch programmes with him - the Night Garden (when we'd play Pinky Ponk or Ninky Nonk with his sitting on my knee being 'hurled' about or bumping up and down and giggling away. Or Thomas and I'd get his little wooden train tracks out afterwards and we'd play. Or CBBeebies and the bed time story.

Then when he was a bit older, not napping, and I needed to do stuff like washing the floor where I didn't need him underfoot, the TV went on for him to watch alone.

Actually there used to be a programme called 'Timmy Time' which was about Shaun the Sheep's Timmy, the little sheep, going to nursery school. We watched that together as he was about to start nursery so he got the gist of what it was all about.

So TV does have its place and can sometimes be really helpful in explaining stuff to young kids.

Dts watched baby Einstein from about 6 months - not trying to make them Einstein it's just patterns and lights, or was a godsend when I was dealing with one and the other could just sit in their chair with me bouncing it with my foot.

They weren't really interested in anything else until about 2, the tv was often on in the background but they were never interested.

My GC were around 18 months when songs on YouTube were put on. It progressed to baby TV and different stuff on YouTube. They both loved to dance and we'd put the my little pony versions of pop songs, as well as Nursery rhymes on. The only programmes the eldest got into was MLP and Peppa Pig, then cocomelon type stuff, as a pp said, they can learn from what they watch. They were bought Kindles at 2, now they have Samsung pads. They are now 5 & 8 and game/YouTube. My DD and their Auntie has movie nights, but other than that they aren't interested. We don't really watch TV in the family. Just balance it out.

When I was on maternity leave it was on all the time as I like news programmes. We don’t watch English speaking tv programmes but DT’s watched children’s tv from when they were tiny - great babysitter when I was trying to get things done. They’ve turned out ok!

DD started watching tv when I started having morning sickness from DS - so she was around 18 months old. She’s now 2 years, 4 months and I try to keep it to less than an hour, ideally no more than half an hour at a time, per day.

However, as I am 9 months pregnant, still being sick and she’s been unwell there have been days when it’s been way, way more than an hour. Hopefully once I’m well we can cut down but it certainly doesn’t seem to have negatively impacted her development - she’s well socialised and hitting her milestones.

DD is 2.5. We watched The Snowman a handful of times since October, and she's watched The Gruffalo may be five or six times since Xmas. If she is unwell it will go on (like over Xmas for a few days) but day to day it's not on. She doesn't have a limit of x mins a day as a result.

I just feel like she's for forever to watch TV. I can occupy her in other ways to get what I need to done so I prefer to do that.

About 12 weeks old according to another thread with lots of outrage if you suggested that wasn't ideal 😅. Tbh I can't remember maybe tried baby tv around 1. Certainly old enough where there is a degree of communication to ask, show they like it

Around 2 for both, though DC2 (just turned 2) only watches very rarely as DC1 mostly only watches it when DC2 naps, and usually only at the weekend.

When DC1 started school we got into the habit of putting it on to help decompress/relax after school but there was a massive deterioration in behaviour - imitating annoying characters and also kicking up a big fuss when we turned it off. Since we limited it again to just weekends (and we watch too) those issues have completely disappeared.