To ask honestly what time the TV goes on?

[mangoandbanana]

I know I’m going to get a load of ‘never, were a screen free house’ but … especially if you have under 5s, what time does it go on?

Half four here. And it is on in the morning too.

Never on a school morning whilst in primary school. Didn't need that distraction - getting them up and out was enough.

Now eldest is a mid/late teen, she puts the TV on once she is ready for school - lunch made etc (she's an early riser). DS focuses on getting up as late as possible to still get everything done and still be ready to get the bus - and TV does not figure in that equation!

Evenings, depends on the clubs. Weekends depends on what we're doing. It's probably on more than I would like, but not enough to cause WW3 with the teens to change anything.

And better TV than the stupid short videos on various social media.

Not much really. Never in the mornings as we (me and DD7) are 100% not morning people so we are always in a mad rush. Most days she'll sit and read a book for a bit for 5-10 minutes while i'm in the shower or getting her lunch ready if we have time rather than put on the TV.

In the evenings we're pretty busy with activities but we maybe do half an hour after dinner if we've nothing on to wind down on the sofa.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a bit of TV (everything in moderation) provided you know what your child is watching and it's not complete rubbish. DD7 mainly watches Storybots, Hey Duggee!, Shaun the sheep and recently Deadly 60 with Steve Backshal which are all good shows. Thank goodness there's no Bing or Peppa any more.

I watched a hell of a lot of TV growing up and it didn't do me much harm. What does absolutely get my goat is kids on phones and tablets. I see so many kids in prams, cars or in restaurants absolutely glued to their phone or tablet like zombies. That's not healthy at all in my opinion and is something we'd never do. If we go out to a restaurant then we sit and talk, she talks to the waiter/waitress to order her own food etc. and generally engages with the experience.

We're in a mad rush to get ready and out on time despite living 2 minutes drive from school! If DD7 has time while i'm getting a shower or making lunch then she'll sit and read a book for 5-10 minutes.

We have cuddles in front of the telly (and coffee, for me) before school, then later in the day it's basically available on request. If DS is on his iPad then he doesn't get the TV too, is the general rule. We are pretty relaxed about it as he usually wants to watch pretty educational stuff and is supervised. He's learned a lot from watching YouTube but I know that's not a popular way to do things here on MN. I would caveat that YouTube is on the TV only, not on the iPad.

Mum to a 5yo and 18mo

None before school.

If I feel tired, I might do some for the toddler mid morning so I can have a cup of tea. He isn’t really interested yet though.

after school, I try to do park or an activity until 4.30 and then it tends to go on for half an hour til tea time.

often it can go on again 6-7pm

Very occasionally, if I am having a really low energy day eg full of cold , it might go on 4pm-7pm after school

sometimes, like tonight, it won’t go on at all. We were doing other stuff and then nobody can find the tv remote annoyingly.

weekends can be a bit of a free for all. But we do swimming, reading, activities etc. so j don’t mind at all.

She’s allowed free rein of all the kids streaming apps, but our YouTube kids is totally locked down. So it’s only channels and videos approved by me or shared by me.

Well the kids (ages 8 & 6) are up at 7, dressed & downstairs by 7.20. They have breakfast. After breakfast they do their spellings, youngest reads to me for a few minutes, then they each have music practise to do on two instruments, 10 mins per instrument. Its about 8.15am by the time they've finished. Then they brush teeth & pack bags for school, put shoes on. We leave at 8 25/8.30.

I'm never sure where people fit in watching tv in before school.

Oh and generally they watch about 20-30 mins after tea, but not on tuesdays as they have swimming, and not on thursdays as they have music lessons.

On weekends they might watch 30 mins before tea.

I don't think I've ever put the tv on before 2pm in my life.

What do you listen to? I want to try and get into radio a little!

Well, if they get up at 630 which is typical they tend to come into my room for a cuddle and we watch CBeebies then.

When mine were this age and up at that time i would have read to them. We don't have a tv in our bedroom or tablets.

Never in the daytime just radio so usually about 7pm. Occasionally earlier at weekend

I dont understand this question....we get dressed for school and work and eat breakfast!

Sorry you don’t understand. Getting dressed and eating breakfast doesn’t take 2-3 hours (or does it?) so we do have quite a chunk of time to fill but that’s because we don’t need to leave until 845. Obviously if your child wakes at 7 and you have to leave at 730 it’s different.

We all do things differently, but thirty minutes of books is a lot of books at two year old level and they don’t like the same books anyway.

Between 7pm and 8pm normally. Occasionally we will watch a film on a wet Sunday afternoon.

Tv or radio 4 on pretty much permanently, often at the same time. We like background noise and dont think its anything evil presence.

I’m finding this interesting as I hate that the first thing my husband does in the morning is turn on the radio. Our tv goes on in the evening after dinner for a couple of hours until bedtime. Family viewing, that kinda thing. I find tv very intrusive. Probably a Me issue. We have teens and when they were younger we did turn it on after school for the whole wind down thing.. a couple of hours of peppa, in the night garden etc.

But lots of children get up several hours before they need to leave for school.

Mine just ... played? I don't know, when they never have the tv, they dont' miss it, it's just not a thing.

They just did their own thing (or worst, "helped" 😂) when I was doing the minimum of house chores. I can't really imagine laying in bed in the morning during the week, even on maternity leave, too much laundry and general tidying up and cleaning to do before we left for the day.

Even less time once I was back at work.

In the morning 6.30 and goes off at 8 on weekdays, none after nursery. We are a bit more lax at weekends but none after 5pm for her.

For DH and I it goes on at 8pm 😂

then they just do what others are doing in the evening instead?

Mine were not allowed out of their bedroom until 7am as soon as they were old enough to understand the grow-clock. That stopped them from waking up too early

As soon as my 2 year old wakes up as otherwise he is too loud and disturbs my 4 year old and newborn. I pick my battles and this isnt one of them!!

Screen time starts at 4.30 while I make dinner for 5.

Or maybe they just want a chilled, quiet start to the day before school?

But then I've never understood the view that screens are evil or bad. I watched TV every morning before school and have it on constantly as an adult. Doesn't seem to have impacted me!

<hollow laugh>

To be fair I don’t think between 630-7 is an unreasonable time to wake up and it’s not something I want to discourage.

Our telly is on all day. Literally goes on when we walk in the living room in morning ! Always has been even pre kids. Sonetimes it’s watched sometimes its background !