Screen time for toddler whilst cleaning

[aiiyl]

So our house needed a desperate deep clean (I put off my weekly deep cleaning during the recent heatwave). I finally decided that today's the day, but my 17 month old is so so busy, that she just grabs and touches EVERYTHING! I try and give her things for her to keep herself entertained but she always ends up just wanting what I have, so I've put Toy Story on for her.

I feel so beyond guilty for this, I try and avoid putting the TV on for her but she's become such a busy little girl that she usually watches around 30 mins of TV a day just so I can get stuff around the house done!

Please tell me I'm not a bad mother for doing this... I see such bad things about screen time and it just eats me up alive 😓 We read around 20 books a day, do have a lot of 1 on 1 time with her and she does play independently but I still can't shake the feeling that I'm going ruin her with the TV!

You absolutely are not going to ruin her with 30 mins of tv. If you’re sitting her in front of the tv for hours a day then yeah, that’s going to harm her development.
It also depends what she’s watching. Nursery rhymes on YouTube are good as they’ll learn the words and you can sing along with her whilst also tidying the room or something. There’s lots of low stimulation shows or educational ones you could choose as well.
It’s fine.

It’s all about balance.. TV is fine, put the right things on and they are learning too. I think it’s so important for Children to be taught to how to be still and relax as well as to be active, so think of it in this way that this is one of the things that she can do to relax her body.