To stop giving myself a hard time about the amount of TV my toddler is watching?

[wetwinter]

Toddler (2 and a half) is watching too much TV. I know this.

She generally wakes at around 6, and I go downstairs with her so she doesn’t wake anyone else up. And the TV does go on then. It’s dark, cold, I’m tired and not up for much else.

Then I make breakfast and get everyone dressed and out on the school run for older sibling. We then generally do an activity in the morning; a playgroup or swimming. We do get outside if the weather is OK. Then home for lunch. It’s then things get a bit tricky. She has dropped her nap and attempts to encourage ‘quiet time’ haven’t been very successful; she just cries / gets upset in her cot. So she watched TV during and after lunch.

Then after I’ve picked her sister up from school they play for a bit but then at around 4, she’s getting very, very tired and her sister is also wanting to chill out and watch some TV, so on it goes again

I do feel guilty about it and worry a lot I’m impeding her development. It wasn’t too bad when she slept a bit later in the morning and was still napping; it was just a little bit in the morning and then evening. Now though it feels like it’s really creeping up but with the weather being wet and cold and dark early it’s hard finding motivation.

I know there are activities like reading, colouring which we do do but they don’t hold her attention for long at all.

I am wondering whether to just accept it’s winter; the screen time will go up and go down to sensible levels again as the weather improves or to make more of an effort!

Some developmental issues don't manifest till adulthood.

How desperate are you? 😂

My eldest is an adult and a vaccination scientist so I'll let them know to be on the lookout. Could be any day now...

There’s a simple solution; move her quiet time to 4pm when your older child wants to watch TV. They watch it together. This does mean that you need to play with your child inside or outside after lunch. It’s exhausting not having a break but you’ll get through it.

Buy a cd player and put simple story CDs on. Or music CDs nursery rhymes, Disney musical soundtracks. It works wonderfully well. There are compilation Disney albums. You can also set up bricks and or simple play set /dollies the night before so when she comes down she can play, with the soundtrack in the background.
I completely understand how you feel at 6am but music helps A LOT and it isn't draining like TV.
The lost nap, again quiet time can be music in the background, soothing stuff lullabies soporific stories. I think they need a mental rest at that age and to feel you aren't giving attention as well, to tune out. Soundtrack of "in the night garden" alone sends me to sleep but Mozart sonatas are good too! You can use your phone to set up a soundtrack too.

So you know she’s watching too much TV but when everyone confirms that then they are being spiteful?
What did you want … everyone to tell you it’s fine so you can just keep sticking her in front of the TV?? Another one who asks for out doesn’t like the answers 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Why ask?!?!

I think that if you allow them so much tv, you should know what they're watching. I put on a bbc cartoon about dinosaurs (angry dinosaurs?) And realised it was totally inappropriate for my granddaughter, and this was on iplayer.
She was glued to it, but very happy when I said I didn't like it and turned it off.
And yes. YABU

I get that it's added up to a lot on the day but using TV in place of a nap is a good tool in my opinion. They still need to chill out at that time, I used TV in place of a nap when my DS dropped his too. If you need to get stuff done I think that's fine. If you have the time, snuggle and read some books instead but I know that's now always practical.

As somebody said cutting meals with the TV is a good time to trim the time down