TV time for 2 year old

[EternalSunshine820]

DD has just turned 2 and demands 'peppa' all the time, and throws a wobbler if she doesn't get it.. I'm a LP and give in sometimes but am worrying about the amount of time she's spending watching TV (when she's watching she just sits staring at the screen, doesn't play at the same time).

Realistically, how much time is sensible and what tactics do you use for distraction (when I offer other toys, books, games etc that doesn't work after the first few tries and she has a short attention span for each one)

She's generally very intelligent, but on her own with me at home in a very small house and I think is partly just getting very bored, especially in the late afternoon/evening when it's dark and I can't take her out anywhere. She has plenty of toys, books etc in the house.

Ds1 would throw wobblers if he didn't get peppa. i swear it's addictive!

We would put it on and say, the deal is 4 peppas then we are going to play snap.

I personally don't think A bit of telly is bad, i think it gives them a bit of downtime.

Can you do a bit of craft or experiments? Things like conflour and water ke them busy for ages, followed by a bath can take well into a couple of hours

I do painting with her, bit worried about cornflour if it happens to get on the carpet or something, I'm in a rented place.. these things are so much easier in the summer when I can put her outside for messy play! With the painting it keeps her attention for 1 painting so I suppose about 10-15 minutes, then she wants to jump down from the table so I have to clean up.. with her other toys sometimes she just gets something out, tips it out then moves on to the next - I've started to insist she clears one away before opening another otherwise she quickly ends up with so much mess she cannot move and she's not playing with each thing.

At the moment she asks for peppa:

• as soon as she gets up in the morning before breakfast
• as soon as she wakes up from her afternoon nap
• after dinner / before bed time

so that could easily be 1.5 hours and counting, I don't want to worry too much she does seem to learn things from it and laughs at it, but you are right it's addictive, that's what I don't like about it

I just tell mine the telly doesn't work except first thing and just before bed but I don't know how much longer he will believe that.
We have a lot of pretend play toys like brushes, hover, cooker, tea set etc and he helps me.do jobs or does his own cooking while I make dinner etc. Also get him to really help me with things like washing, baking, loading the dish washer. Takes up.his time while saving me time once the kids are in bed.
Also make sure we get outside unless its really cold at least in the garden for a bit each day (I'm not in the UK).
Tbh though I don't think that's too much tv.

Argh, my 20 month old is becoming more like this. I think the problem is, they pick up on things like this as part of their routine really quickly and get very frustrated when they don't get what they expected. As in, you only need to let them watch Peppa Pig after naptime two days in a row, and suddenly they expect it as part of their routine every day. It's so tempting to allow it too, as it frees you up to do whatever you fancy at the same time... The good thing is they do adapt pretty quickly so another 2 or 3 days without Peppa Pig and they quickly stop asking...

Here's our TV habits: At the moment I'm allowing 30 mins of iPlayer Ceebebies on my iPad while we snuggle in bed in the morning. This is just to satisfy my own laziness and lack of will to get out of bed! Then it's no TV or screens whatsoever for the rest of the morning/before naptime. Even if it's cold and windy I've started trying to take him out even just for a 20 or 30 min walk round the block. Then it's lunch, naptime etc. Then I'm trying to allow no more than 30 mins or so of TV in the afternoon/evening but ideally none!

If you think about it, say your child is awake from 7am - 7pm with a 2 hour nap in the middle. That's only 10 hours they're awake for. So even "just" 2 hours a day watching TV or looking at screens is already a whole 20% of their day! At an age when their brains are still very much in the early stages of development. I find that quite a scary thought so we're trying to ration DS's screen time very carefully as he's not even 2 yet.

Ha ha ha - 10hrs I wish, by 20months mine slept 7-5 with no nap so more like 14hrs awake a day.
Routines also.get harder to break as they get older and remember longer I think your prob wise to try and restrict it now though.

Yes exactly purpletree re: the 10 hours awake, and mine also sleeps 3-4 hours every afternoon and often sleeps int until 7.30/8am (I checked with the HV and she said to let her sleep!) so in fact she has more like 4 hours and a bit in the morning + 4 hours max in the evening awake. So taht's only 8-9 hours awake.

We do go out to play groups / activities - swimming, park etc, and she has 2 days at nursery where there is no TV (and she sleeps more like 1.5 hours), but it's the brain development I worry about. There aren't exactly that many episodes either. If an adult was sitting there watching re-runs of anything over and over I'd worry, so a toddler much more so.

Tactics for reducing the TV time - just try to divert / put up with the screaming indignation for a few days?