Screen time. How much do you allow?

[BastardDog]

Honestly.

My kids are 10 and 12. I know it's the holidays, but all they seem to do is move between the tv, Xbox and the laptop. If I kick them off one thing, they go and sit in front of one of the others. From pretty well 8am to 9pm, apart from breaks for meals and the odd half hour that I throw them outside to play.

Do you set limits? Or are you laid back about it?

Honestly? Too much, ATM.

Usually, they get half an hour before and after school and an hour at the weekend but we've just moved house and haven't got support in place for DS1 (SN) yet so I've allowed DS2 to spend far too much time on his DS while I sort DS1's care needs and DS1 too much time in front of his favourite DVD when I need a break from him.

I know what you mean though, sometimes you just can't face tge whines of getting them off, especially just now when the weather is shit, your skint post-Christmas and they have new games/DVDs they are desperate to play.

you're
the.

Sorry, sausage fingers on phone.

We try to limit to half hour before school and the same after school and 20mins for games, BUT holidays make it much harder. I try to do an outside/family thing a day, bikes in the park yesterday, trip to local castle today etc and then let them have a bit longer than usual infront of the box. Today for example we got back about 2ish, they watched a dvd they got for christmas and are about to have half an hour on the wii , which they had for christmas. It makes me feel a bit better if they have seen some real poeple during the day!!

My kids are 2, 4 and 6. The younger two aren't really interested yet (and are easily distracted) but it is becoming an issue with the 6yo. I haven't set limits yet (except a rule of switch off at 7pm), and my best method of dealing with it is to get them out of the house for a good chunk of the day. Today we went to play at a friend's, yesterday to the playground (in the drizzle!) and out for lunch, the day before to a soft play area. Then when we are in I don't worry about it too much. I do appreciate that some of the above is more appropriate to younger children than yours though.

I allow ds1 (age 6) very very little because the impact on his behaviour is stark. On school days it's no telly at all, full stop, and maybe 20 mins of something like cbeebies games on the pc two or three times a week. Weekends maybe an hour of something once a day, but often nothing at all. Ds2 aged 3 gets a bit more, often an hour of cbeebies or perhaps a dvd three or four times a week whilst ds1 is at school.