AIBU that reducing under 5s screen time is way more complicated than just issuing guidelines?

552 replies

Lovelygreenpen · 27/03/2026 07:57

This guidance is welcome. We need to know facts and risks to make informed choices. But choices often aren’t made entirely freely. Think about healthy eating and exercise guidance and how complicated these can be to follow due to costs and time.

How would following this under 1 hour rule change your daily routine?
Most parents need to work all the hours with COLC and decades of rising housing costs. working life also often expands to expect parents to be in contact from home outside of paid work hours.
How are busy parents supposed to manage? How are solo working parents specifically supposed to manage? Any family with more than one child?
And what about the screens used in childcare settings?
What are the responsibilities of the makers of the crazy overstimulating content for babies and kids?

We know women often have to do more domestic labour than men, even where they live with a male partner. Also, that the makers of the content aimed at kids specifically employ addictive techniques.

So how is this pressured wider environment going to change to make this recommendation more realistic?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1d936n7445o

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Floppyearedlab · 10/05/2026 23:51

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 10/05/2026 23:47

I don’t have a lot of either I’m a single mum with a toddler and when we’re on buses or waiting rooms I talk to my son about what we can see, I hold his hand and we walk about, I give him snacks, he waves at other people and they chat to him. This is when I’d be least likely to show him tv!

i do think that if children see parents do nothing to entertain themselves except stare at their own screen of course a toddler will copy that and the more they’re given it the more they crave it, and the quiet is ‘rewarding’ to the parents. But handing them a bag of pick and mix would also make them sit and shh for a few minutes and would rot their teeth like screens rot brains.

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Very sensible answer

I don’t allow screens and both grandmothers know that that is our one rule (they don’t care, they don’t use them much either).
I am aware there will be some screen use at school and if they are ever at a friend’s house and use them there that will be ok. But not at home.

FloorWipes · 11/05/2026 00:37

CraftyGin · 27/03/2026 17:31

My kids were born throughout the 1990s, and never had screens before age 5 (and possibly a lot longer).

First of all, parents need to get off their own screens when they are looking after children. They are telling children that their doom scrolling is more important than their child, and are modelling really bad behaviour.

They should also re-evaluate what is taking up so much of their time that their children are neglected.

An infant will happily sit in their bouncy chair watching mum do her chores, which she makes eye-contact and talks to the child.

One a bit older, they can sit in their high chair in the kitchen as mum prepares the food, engaging with their child at the same time.

How long does hoovering take that the child can't just wait for attention (or have a nap)? Children need to learn to be patient.

It's a cop-out to say that screens are essential or a treatment for SEND. They are the cause of many SEMH and behavioural issues, IMO.

Honestly my child could never have done any of those things, truly. When my child was under 5 there was zero possibility I could hoover while in sole charge of her. I could barely go for a pee. It's hard to describe if you don't have a child like this but I literally had to throw out her high chair as she could not safely be placed in it.

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