1 year old at nursery watching a tablet

[FlipperyGibbet]

AIBU for expecting my 1 year old to not be shown programmes on a tablet when she's at nursery? She has just started her second week, does 4 full days a week (Mon - Thurs) in the baby room of approx. 12 babies up to 14 months old.

Last week DH collected and was told she enjoyed watching Mr Tumble on the tablet but was initially unsure. He replied that she'd probably been unsure because she has zero screen time at home. They said they just have it on whilst cleaning up after lunch. We were surprised, but figured that we couldn't really argue if that's what they needed to do.

This afternoon DH picked her up and as he got to the door he could see all the babies sat in a semi circle, again watching the tablet. No post-lunchtime cleaning up was happening and a key worker was sat with them. They were all strapped into their little highchairs too.

The whole thing just makes me feel a bit sad. We get that screen time has a place, but we've spent the past year actively choosing not to have any screen time at all. Our DD will happily play with / read books, or play with a toy and amuse herself. The fact that this has happened twice in 5 days makes me feel uncomfortable. Am I over reacting and is this a normal occurrence for 1 year olds in nursery nowadays?

I would consider myself a relaxed parent but I wouldn’t be happy about this. The whole point of paid childcare is that they do all the wholesome activities that we CBA to do at home 🤣

No, I wouldn’t be happy with that at all.

Our DDs’ nursery used to put the tv on a whiteboard at the end of the day while children were being collected (tended to be nursery rhyme songs with animation) and I thought that was fine. Other activities were available, but it was the end of the day, children were tired, and staff were a bit busier with talking to parents who were arriving. This was only in the room with 2-3 yr olds, not the younger rooms.

Babies sitting strapped in chairs watching a tablet would be something I’d be really bothered by.

No that’s really not on. Assuming you will be in England and that they follow similar guidelines to Scotland, which state that nurseries should follow certain practices, one of which is not using tablets or screens.
Have a look at the curriculum guidelines and perhaps use that as a way to prompt conversation.

Following as my 2 year old told me she was watching “coco melon on nursery workers names phone.” She’s never once watched this programme so I know this is fact.

I'd look for another nursery. I've had 3 DC at 4 different nurseries, 1 is still at nursery. I also worked in nurseries. 1 of those did use a lot of screen time in the toddler room so I removed DC. The current one has some TV time in preschool just after tea if its bad weather, I see photos of all sorts of other activities going on through the day. None of them had screen time for babies, the strapping them in high chairs is also really, really poor practice.

Thank you, appreciate this advice as we do feel that a conversation needs to be had. Do you know where we can find the guidance about no screens please? We've had a quick Google.

I think we're going to request, at the very least, that if they need to have it on please can she be free to move away i.e. not strapped in. At home, her go-to is the bookshelf so I'm confident that she'd happily sit and read rather than watch a screen!

That would be a hard no. Apart from anything else, parents are really grappling with screens and the type of content they might allow their kid to watch. It's not a decision for nurseries, who are supposed to be strictly regulated.

www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-And-Watching-TV-054.aspx

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmeduc/915/report.html#:~:text=Screentime%20is%20not%20recommended%20for,one%20hour%20(less%20is%20better)

help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/health-and-wellbeing/internet-safety

I would not be happy with them strapped in a highchair outside of mealtimes?! And I would say I'm fairly relaxed. I dont know how I feel about the screen time. I suppose it's difficult as you dont actually know how much they're watching. If its literally 5 minutes once every few days I wouldn't care, but the fact your DH saw her watching the iPad infers it is much more frequent, and I wouldn't be happy with that.

No no no. I’ve temped in many nurseries and never seen this even in the otherwise poor ones. absolutely no need to strap babies in front of a screen, I think that’s awful.

Same in my nursery and in pre school after school club, end of day chill with nursery rhymes or bluey or something. And they can come over and watch it or play elsewhere. I would not be happy with op's nursery

Totally not on. I had three under one - my twins were premature. When we hired a nanny and she arrived and I went upstairs to get ready, first thing she did was turn the TV off. She now has an almost 2.5yr old, and he’s way more advanced than mine were at his age.

I had a brief scan and also asked Chat GPT to scour and it appears that the English curriculum guidelines do not outrightly ban use of screens but recommends limiting them.*
In Scotland there is the GIRFEC, getting it right for every child policy and all nurseries including private ones should not use screens.
despite this, I think your concerns are entirely reasonable and I don’t think any parent puts their child in nursery expecting them to stare at an iPad all day, that’s pretty poor.
*big caveat as I’m not an expert, worth double checking.

Very lazy on the nursery’s part. YANBU!

And I’m not even anti screen. My 2yo is very verbally advanced and has a bit of telly every day. (And lots of other activities with limits on screen time.) But I wouldn’t want to pay for childcare to then have my kid sitting watching a screen.

This is really poor practice - both the screen use and the unnecessary use of restraint

Yes, I wouldn't like this at all it's the restraining that bothers me.

No I wouldn't be impressed by that. At my daughter's nursery they only had screen time when they got to the oldest group and even then it was a short programme whilst they read the book alongside like snail and the whale or it was a factual ocean sort of programme.

Choose a different nursery. When I was working in a nursery (it was only last year) we didn't have any TV time. We sometimes used the tablet for music and dancing. They were never sat around watching it.
Tbh it wouldn't even occur to me to ask if a nursery used tablets or phones for TV but clearly it's something you to check.
I did remove my eldest from her CM who had the TV on every time I picked up, even if I arrived early. I let my children watch TV after nursery for 30 minutes to chill out I wouldn't expect them to be watching it at nursery.
I also wonder if the nursery is short staffed in which case they're breaking the rules because why else would you have all the kids strapped in chairs, making them watch a tablet.

This was our thinking too as the room leader is currently on two weeks of annual leave. There have been several other concerns over the past week (no / limited infrequent app updates, incomplete handover sheets etc) but I've honestly talked myself down and reasoned that they may be short staffed and perhaps my expectations are too high.

We were happy to hold off and wait until the room leader was back to see if things improved but the tablet being used twice in 5 days (that we know of) and the use of the highchair seats to keep them sat down is just too major to wait for a discussion on. She was also in for 8 hours yesterday and went 5+ hours before her nappy was changed.

I am just so disappointed, we spent so long choosing a nursery and went for this one due to it's fantastic feedback from other parents and we genuinely thought it aligned with our values. I feel really sad about it

I would be raising your concerns if I was you. The manager may not be aware of these goings on

I would move my child as well, that's completely unacceptable. I know it's a huge hassle with so few nursery places these days - but I think that when they're so young you need to (slightly) over-react. As if that's what they're happy with parents seeing, it's very unlikely that's that only time it's happened.