To think this was a nice day for toddler …?

[Owlatnighttime]

Wakes at 5.

Comes in bed for cuddle with parent a, won’t go back to sleep, Parent a puts tv on. Has breakfast around 8, goes out with parent a at 9. Toddler group, then a run and play on the park. Home for lunch, naps 12:20-2:20, watches some tv for maybe an hour, plays outside in the garden for an hour. Now playing with toys until tea at 515, will then watch another hour of CBeebies then bath and bed.

When your toddler wakes many hrs before you do, what are you to do with them if they don’t settle back down to sleep?

just curious as my son isn’t born yet but it is mentioned a lot on here the fact the TV was used for 3 hrs until they woke up.. I’m not saying this is the solution but am very curious what other parents do in this case?

Sounds perfect. Whenever my toddler woke at stupid o'clock I never gave them breakfast till at least 7.30-8ish. Soon realised there's no point waking up at that hour as I won't be fed then haha. No seriously the screen time police will be onto you but it sounds like a perfectly nice day for you both.

My rest is the 2h afternoon nap.
I will let DC watch TV for a bit but would limit it (try to limit to 30 min chunks no more than once or twice a day) unless I am ill... looking after young kids when ill is horrendous and you do what you have to do to get through it.

He’s not massively motivated by food. I’m not purposefully withholding it, just he never eats it if you give it to him much before 730!

I used to have the TV on quite a lot, but they used to play and ignore it most of the time.
they’d only sit and watch it properly in short bouts, and then go off and play again.
Thats why I didn’t really mind it being on

Genuinely wondering (as opposed to being a GF): if the TV is on but nobody is actively watching it, and the children are bumbling around doing other stuff, why does it need to be on at all? I had specific times when they could watch videos, but otherwise they just had to bumble around.

The only exception was if they were ill, in which case I sat on the sofa with them and watched endless Thomas videos. That was if they were so ill that they couldn't play or read or do anything else (Noro etc). Then the VHS player was a godsend.

TBH if the screen time isn't causing any problems I wouldn't worry about it. I think we can worry overly about things like this and it doesn't really matter.

He's getting kind, loving interaction with a parent, outside time/movement time, interaction with other kids, play time, three solid meals and a warm bed. He's basically hit the toddler jackpot. A bit of screen time is really really not the end of the world.

I'm trying to cut down on ours because we're having some touchy behaviour mostly from 4yo and have got into a bad habit of basically having it on in the background a lot and I'm wondering if it will help behaviour to reduce it, but if you're not having any issues and it's not pushing out anything else, then meh in my opinion. (And even though I'm trying to cut down, I do not do playing before 9am - so TV absolutely gets used in the mornings regardless of anything else).

Honestly you are doing a great job. Don't stress.

Everything happens very gradually. It was absolutely not a problem when my DC were little. They very, very gradually went from being babies to being toddlers, and we very, very gradually introduced clocks, so they very, very gradually learned that being awake very early was fine, but disturbing Mummy and Daddy was not fine, so they needed to play quietly in their own rooms until the particular configuration of the clock hands which meant that they could come bursting into our room like greyhounds out of traps.

It’s funny with screen time. I find age appropriate content is well thought through and beneficial to kids. Baby club on CBeebies is singing, interacting and playing with baby. Cartoons are put together to teach kids about the world, go betters is brill, I’ve learned stuff from it. I’ve also done mr tumble nursery rhymes with my children and we’ve picked up makaton and my toddlers speech is great…

My issue is as long as tv isn’t a babysitter as you wfh with a toddler or something stupid, and they’re watching age appropriate stuff, what’s the problem? And when they’re 12/13/14 and get a phone will they be on it all the time? Well probably, and adults are too. And that will be regardless of whether they watched 1 hour or 2 hours of tv as toddlers!

“Educational TV content has been shown to help improve behaviour, literacy and cognitive skills for three to five year olds”
www.bbc.com/future/article/20200925-how-screen-time-affects-childrens-brains

I have an early riser too, we watch Peppa pig in the morning this has led to nice days out at Peppa pig world and great imaginary play with our Peppa pig figurines.
It’s odd we worry when we’re still having quality time and outings with our kids then spend most of the evening on screens ourselves.

mine doesn't stop at all unless the TV is on. It gives me a breather and time to rest. How do those of you who don't use a TV do this? I'm genuinely interested, not being goady.

As said before I do let them watch TV, but I can rest without the TV being on - I just get some toys out for them and they get engrossed in that and I can sit down and chill or get on with jobs or whatever.

I don't know if I've somehow trained them to do that by ignoring them or something! DH is forever sticking the TV on if I leave the room for a minute and he's not actively playing with them. He doesn't seem to know how to just let them potter around.

I agree. I don’t really get it either. My parents have the TV on 24/7 and I find it too overstimulating and intrusive…but then again I could quite happily have the radio on all day, so I suppose maybe there isn’t much difference!

Sounds fine OP, not great but acceptable. It reminded me of the dark days when my ds was a toddler and there was no ‘on demand’ tv. CBeebies didn’t start until 6 and ds regularly woke at 5- we’d be counting down the minutes to Tikabila starting!
When ds was 19 months, dd was born. CBeebies was a third parent.
We do what we need to do to survive those long days of toddlerdom.

Just to add, ds is nearly 16 now and fine. Although he does still get up annoyingly early.

I think giving some food later might help. Ours used to wake up a lot earlier until we gave a snack around 1830 with some milk. Then play, bath, story and bed around 1930. They might wake up early due to hunger if they’re wanting milk straight away.

In terms of tv/radio in the background - I do this a lot on my own. I put something on Netflix whilst I do the housework (something I’ve seen loads), or a Radio 4 play. I like the background noise.

I think we can worry overly about things like this and it doesn't really matter.
This should be a tag line for parenting 😂

I was thinking the same thing. Mine are much older now but neither would actually properly watch tv. Both really just played with the tv on in the background. Bits might catch their attention for a few minutes here or there but that was about it.

It's a nice day but I think too much telly.

We would do:

Wake at 6, cuddle and read some books in bed.
Breakfast 6:30
Telly for an hour max after breakfast
Potter about "helping" with housework and playing with toys at home
9/9:30 head out for a playgroup/activity
Home for lunch and nap 12-2

There would be no more telly for the rest of the day unless he's home sick, then we allow some more as it's a long day to fill at home!

I have the radio on or podcast on pretty much all the time in the background. They don't need to be on but I like the background noise.
My ds has asd and doesn't like the quiet, never has, noises(car doors closing outside, floor boards creaking, the cat jumping off the bed) tend to make him anxious so having the tv or now he is older spotify on takes away that anxiety.
What harm do you think it does to have background noise?

My DD is a very similar age and we've had a very similar day, apart from the early start (I'm v lucky and she usually wakes around 8). It's a v typical day for us. We have a routine of watching TV for 30-45 mins after breakfast, after lunch nap and after dinner. I had to make a routine because I started to rely a bit too much on TV after DS was born a few months ago and I noticed the impact on her behaviour - though tbf I think it was less the TV itself and more the unpredictability from her POV, not knowing when it was and wasn't allowed. She only watches stuff on iPlayer / Prime so we get to make sure she only watches good quality stuff and where possible I watch with her so we can talk about it. We also have the subtitles on, which has been proven to help with early reading!

I’m so jealous of all these napping toddlers! Ours is 18m and only goes down for an hour at most once a fortnight, even at nursery where they do the magic napping. The nursery staff (who are absolutely amazing), have spoken to us about it, but not really sure what we can do?!

TV for a bit and then play?

It's not really any different to any other time of day

Ds was an obscenely early riser, and I was a lone parent so it was relentless.

I used to consider 8am - 7pm my “working hours” and would try be the perfect parent between these hours with wholesome activities and engagement. Outside those hours it was survival and I allowed myself to do whatever made my life easier - someone mentioned food by the bed, and that was me! I would literally hand him a brioche, carton of orange juice and the iPad at 5am and just try to snooze beside him.

Definitely! I would also add; don’t worry if you’re not judging yourself hard enough, there are so many others out there who will do that for you!

Interesting. Not my experience - if the TV is on, mine will sit totally engrossed in it. They won't play at all.

I suppose it’s just a bit of background noise.
no different to having the radio or whatever on