How much screen time does your preschooler have - be honest please!

[ElusiveMoose]

Sorry, this has probably been done before, but I'm interested to see how DS1 compares with his peers. Until recently we've never had an issue with screen time at all, because he was never overly interested in TV (liked it, but never asked to have it on). He usually used to have 20 mins or so while I made lunch, and then 30 mins or so of the Beebies bedtime hour.

Now, it's suddenly become more of a concern, for a number of reasons (BTW he's just turned 3):

1. He's getting interested in longer programmes now - films like The Jungle Book and so on, not just 15 min programmes.
2. He's suddenly discovered our computer, and actually asks for that much more than the TV. Most of the stuff he does on there is pretty educational (his favourites are Alphablocks and another excellent reading website), but it's still screen time.
3. I had another baby a couple of months ago, so we're tending to stay in a bit more than we were (plus the weather is not exactly conducive to extensive outside play).

So, we're suddenly having battles about it - him always asking to have TV or computer (usu the latter), and me saying no, or only 10 more mins, or whatever. So I'm interested in what others do. How much time do your children spend per day in front of a screen (and do you count computer time the same as TV time)? And does it bother you??

ah, don't have cable or Sky hence no Nick Jr. But I dont' think DS saw Peppa Pig when we were in USA last year and did have Cable.

I would practice piano and just get to RELAX when DS was babysat by Cbeebies. Catch up on emails, look things up, list Ebay, all sorts. It was jolly nice!

But mostly I don't handle nagging very well, so it had to be all (because DS wanted hours if he had any) or none (else he would have nagged constantly for it).

Must go practice piano, now.

Pretty sure Peppa Pig used to be on Chanel 5

It's hard when they aren't at school. Such a temptaion to let them watch just that bit more TV than is healthy . However, I found that the behaviour my two (especially DS) became poor when they had watched too much TV, so I limit it quite strictly (especially during the week) now. It is easier for me, though, as they are both out at school / daycare all day.

Our ground rules are:

No TV in the morning. I set them up with books or put CDs or audio tapes on now if I need them to stay in one place while I get ready. Tv in the morning seemed to set them up badly for the day (e.g. staring at screen, not listening to what i was saying, sulking about getting ready to go out etc)

30 mins -ish in the evening (usually the end of the Bedtime Hour) - only after toys have been tidied away and dinner has been eaten etc

CBeebies/CBBC only during the week (DS is allowed to watch Horrid Henry sometimes ). The ads are just ridiculous on most kid's Sky channels and I just don't want them gawping at ad after ad.

DVDs and longer programmes at the weekend. They probably watch a cpouple of hours of telly on Sat mornings, but come on - how else do you get a lie-in??!

More than usual at the moment as I am bf an 8 week old. DS is 2.7.

Ineedto use tv at strategic times of the day at the moment because of feeding but didn't want to rely on the schedules so I tape 4 programmes i know he likes and that i think are reasonably good and use those if he's watching when the scheduleshave something dull or irritating on.

He probably watches 2-3 hours on the days when he is with me all day (for me, this is really too much), 30-60 mins on nursery days, and then maybe an hour at weekends. We don't have background noise in the house as I prefer it to be quiet if we aren't actively listening so no music, radio or tv. This is because it distracts me from conversations, and I find the same with DS. So if DS wanders away to play then i ask him to switch the Telly off.

I don't think Telly is bad per se - just that it makes me lazy (I'm quite bad at letting him have just one more programme while I have another and if he has too much hereally tantrums when I switch it off which I don't think is healthy.

Should add that I think 30-60 mins feels about right for my ds, - difference btwn him enjoying it as a treat and then happily letting me switch it off versus him wanting it on all day - so working on cutting back to that on the days I have him alone. I have found skyplussing the 4 programmes good as i can then say 'let's watch show me show me' and force myself to switch off after that when the recording ends rather than just switching on cbeebies and having no reminder for myself as to how long he has been watching.

Thanks for all your replies (and sorry I didn't post again sooner - DS has been hogging the computer ). It sounds as if DS is on the relatively heavy end of average, but not totally over the top. I'm trying to restrict him to two computer sessions a day (which usu last up to half an hour), plus 20-30 mins of TV before bed. But some days we might have a film instead of the second TV session. Actually, reading your comments about whether the TV is left on or not (ours never is) makes me think that I should start turning the computer off as well - at the moment it's on morning until night, plus it's in the living room. It's annoying, though, because I do like to check my email throughout the day, and sometimes play music on itunes etc. But I guess if it's off, then that's a bit less of a temptation. Forget to say, the other reason he's having more screen time recently is that he's dropped his lunchtime nap, and I'm finding that hour or two quite hard to fill...