How much TV is too much TV?

[keb2702]

My 16 month old absolutely loves the tv. Gets so excited when it comes on!
But I'm worried he watches too much. His childminder also lets him watch tv and I don't think she monitors how much he watches.
Sometimes he'll have a couple of hours spread over the day. Is this too much? I find it so hard to say no to him as he holds the remote and points to the TV!

Can't really help, as DD loves TV and watches far too much when at home but I'd not be happy with my childminder putting on the TV when DD was with her. Any bad habits will be cultivated by me.

This morning my 16 month old ds brought me the remote demanding "duggee!!". When I didnt respond quick enough he unfurled my fingers, put the remote in my hand and repeated!

Dd probably has a couple of hours most days but he doesnt actually watch much of it, hell wizz off to play with toys. I've started putting the radio on the tv for background noise

I'd have a big issue with the childminder letting him watch whatever / however much TV he wants! That's really really poor on their part!

Nobody can ever seem to agree how much tv is good / bad for children - most info people give you will generally just reflect their personal beliefs.

My DS (2) watches tv everyday while I make dinner. Sometimes he sits and watches, sometimes it's just background noise while he plays. It's the end of the day, he's been interacted with and educated for 10 or so hours by that point, he sleeps like a champ - I don't have any issues with him zoning out a bit. But another person will be horrified by that 🤷‍♀️

I would say though, remember you're the adult, he doesn't dictate to you, or choose when to watch the tv. It's your choice, you're in charge. My DS asks for "tartoons" or "duck" several times a day. I tell him no until I'm ready. If he gets hold of the remote, I take it away and turn the tv off. Obviously you have to pick your battles!! But if you find it's hours everyday and you're worried about saying "no", then you might have to review the tv use - for your own sanity!

I would not be happy about the child minder letting him watch TV. Personally I think 2 hours is way too much at that age if that’s on a regular basis. Obviously we all have difficult days where somebody is ill or the weather is awful and you can’t face going out or where you’re really busy and need to get something done. I try to limit it to 1 hour max (preferably 40 min) for my 3 and nearly 5 year old. We also have dats where they don’t watch anything.

There are WHO guidelines which you might find interesting, which don’t recommend any screen time at all under 2:

www.who.int/news-room/detail/24-04-2019-to-grow-up-healthy-children-need-to-sit-less-and-play-more

Try not to stress about it.

My friends DC have square eyes. Their TV us on from the minute the first person wakes up until the last person goes to bed. They all have TV’s in their bedrooms and all watched TV when they went to bed until far too late.

They also live on junk food.

All three kids now teenagers and top of their respective school years - 2/3 on the G&T list & all kinds of awards etc.

So, it doesn’t appear to have done them a bit of harm! Despite my judgey pants being hoiked up like a cheese wire!

Incredibly Haha, that's like what my DM says about me and my siblings (although not the junk food). We watched a lot of TV when we were little ,especially me being the eldest of 3 kids close in age and also being a horrific nightmare baby/infant. My parents had no outside help.

I don't think I would ever judge someone else or think what their kid did in this regard wasn't right tbh. Unless it was blatantly very extreme. All of them are different. My 17m also gets the tv remote, points it at the telly, puts my hand on it etc if she wants to watch tv. I always let her but sometimes she gets annoyed and repeats, I think it's because she wants to watch something specific but she doesn't have the language to tell me that. That's my personal line - I don't want her to think I can just summon up her fave shows at any time of day or night, in anybody's house etc. So I won't use iPlayer or anything to play her fave show, I basically offer her CBeebies or TinyPop and that's it. If she's not interested in either, it goes off.

She doesn't tend to sit and watch TV properly though. I have her one day a week alone and she often watches a solid 30 minutes before her morning nap. Most evenings she will sit and watch about a solid 20-30 mins of something in her bedtime routine, but often not even that because she often just walks off and plays and goes in and out of the room etc. She has the TV on a lot when my DM has her one day a week but I don't think she spends much time sitting and actively watching iyswim. She's not in the house that much really, we don't stay in all day virtually ever so she doesn't watch tons of telly. An average week day when she's in nursery it would be around 20-30 mins but a weekend or a day with me or my mum probably more like 1hr in total. Sometimes more.

Under twos shouldn’t have any screen time at all according to research.
Between 2-5 they should only have an hour a day.
5-17 (and probably adults too), it should be no more than 2 hours a day.

So..at 16 months any tv is too much....but good luck with that! 😁

I’m ill today so DS who is 18 months will be watching tv all day and I don’t feel bad at all. At home he watched quite a bit especially when I’m trying to get housework done, sometimes it’s on and he doesn’t pay attention anyway - I also don’t think all programs are equal, some are more educational/teach better vocab than others. And if you spend a whole day out one day and then spend most of the day at home with the tv on I think that evens itself out too. My childminder doesn’t allow much tv at all (she says, I’ll take her word for it!) if she admitted to just letting the kids watch tv all day I wouldn’t be happy, that’s not really fulfilling the job role in imo, you’re still paying for a good quality early years setting. If OFSTED came in and the kids were parked I front of the tv the whole time I doubt they would get a good judgement.

Under twos shouldn’t have any screen time at all according to research GULP!!!!
Sorry but unless you have a maid and a cook you need the tv sometimes. God love some Duggee- in fact love most of cbeebies.

As long as its balanced- when Im home I take my daughter out for much of the morning, play a little in the afternoon before dinner- yes Duggee appears through out the day at various points but we do "do" things and engage. TBH I personally like background noise in my day and that tends to be the tv or radio.

Childcare however that I am paying for...nope tv shouldnt take up most of the day. This is one of the reasons I opted for a nursery, to ensure my child wasnt just plonked infront of a tv whilst someone got on with their chores.

God love some Duggee- in fact love most of CBeebies

Absolutely. Sat here feeling poorly while DS is watches CBeebies - prefer that to shitty daytime tv any day.

To be honest it’s just me watching Mr Tumble right now, my DS is playing with building blocks and not even facing the tv

I have the tv on a lot especially as I now have a newborn.

I don't actually think it's a horribly bad thing, it's helped my DS with his imaginative play I.e he re-enacts fireman Sam Going down the fireman pole into his truck. He says ladder up and moves the ladder up to 'rescue' whoever.
He's learned to count backwards from watching Blaze. I've only been teaching him to count forwards.

We go out everyday and I do turn it off and ensure we do puzzles, books crafts etc as well but he has more than the hour recommended screen time

I disagree that you need the tv on at all. I have a mega active almost 14 month old who is exhausting. I admit I have tries to get him interested in the tv so I can have a break. But he just wants to play instead. Then I discovered they're not supposed to watch tv until they're 2 anyway so I have up trying and just play with him instead and follow him around the house. Housework is done when he naps... very quickly! It's not easy but I cope. And I certainly don't have a maid or a cook; in fact, my husband works 6 days a week plus an evening, so it's mostly just me and my son. I share this jot to shame anyone because actually I don't think a little bit does any harm, but to counter the point that without a maid and a cook you NEED to have the tv on. Thus isn't true - but it can be a useful tool. I wouldn't be at all happy with a childminder having the tv on for my son though, if we had one.