From what age your child started watching tv?

[ana7887]

Hi everyone,

I am a first time mum and my baby boy is 9 months old. When I am at home alone with him I have TV on to have smth on background.
Recently I noticed that my baby can stare at it for about 2-4 mins straight... then I googled from what age is it safe for a baby to watch tv and it's 3 years old!!! I am a bit shocked now because I occasionally put baby shark and other short cartoons for my son.. and honestly it made me feel like a horrible mother.

Now a question: from what age your child started watching cartoons. I just feel that 3 years old is not reasonable in our days...

Thanks in advance.

13 months old here, and no tv yet!

I can't remember but an early age, definitely younger than one. He's 20 months now and we have it on a bit during the day and he also has 3 10-min blasts of the iPad while I wash up as this is the only way I can safely wash up his meal time things (I keep him in his high chair and try to do it quickly).

It really has done him no harm I believe. I'm a former early years teacher so it's all carefully balanced out with lots of playing, books and activities. He is (or 'was' for now - obviously because of lockdown!) outdoors loads and at lots of play groups, rhyme time etc.

I say just let your child enjoy a bit of telly and relax.

My little boy is 20 month and the tv is always on either milkshake or CBeebies or a film. He can sit and watch a whole film if he's in the mood.

He doesn't always watch it when it's on, we are playing with his blocks/reading/playing outside or whatever but it is always on.

Mine loves CBeebies at 16mo, but we balance this with lots of time outdoors etc. She seems normal for her age.

When I start stressing about this, friends remind me that us who were born in the 80s/90s were probably the first generation to have access to a lot of children’s tv and we turned out fine (mostly!)

Mines 9 months too, 3 years makes me feel bad because I've had the TV on in the background since birth, it's usually music videos through YouTube as I like listening to music, like you I've noticed he'll actually pay attention to the screen for a few minutes at a time.
I did try an episode of Hey Duggee for this reason a few weeks back and he really enjoyed it, but now I'm wondering if it's such a good idea.
He also sits on dh lap while he's playing games on his pc, is that also not advisable?

My son is 2 and watches TV for a couple of hours a day. He also asks to 'watch diggers' on my phone which is basically him watching digger YouTube videos. I was much stricter with our daughter, but from about 2/3 she loved screen time too. We balance it out so that time is spent in the playroom, garden or out on bikes once a day. When we're not on lockdown, we go for lots of walks, visit galleries, National Trust properties, body boarding at the coast and soft play visits so the children do get a balance. They also have structured input from school and the childminder. If I had more energy then I would love to be the kind of mum who devotes every minute of the day to active play with my children. However, I'm too selfish for that: I work hard, like a tidy house, like to make meals from scratch and like to relax myself. I guess our children exist around us in our house.

About the age that I realised TV plus jumperoo bought me 10 minutes peace, so probably about 6 months old. DD2 just grew up with the TV on a lot from birth because her older sister was already watching it for periods.

Honestly it's all about balance. A bit of time watching TV every day isn't going to do any harm providing you are doing other stimulating stuff each day as well, and sometimes for the sake of your sanity you need a few minutes to have a cuppa in peace, or to do some odd jobs around the house. Please don't be so hard on yourself.

18 months - I use it as "relaxing" time for him. He has some before his nap while having his snack and while I'm making his dinner in late afternoon. We do plenty of other activities during the rest of the day so I don't think a bit of cbeebies hurts.

I have the tv on a lot, since birth too. But before lockdown, we were going out to baby groups everyday. So, I didn’t feel so bad. Now my DD is 13 months old, although she wants the tv on a lot, it’s usually so that she can play with the buttons on the remote 🙈

It’s hard just now when you can go out much. I think as long as you interact with them too, they will be ok.

He started actually occasionally paying attention at about 1. Now 22 months and we usually watch it when we wake up in the morning and in the late afternoon before dinner. As long as it's not all you do then I don't think it does harm - we also play outside lots and read lots of books and play with toys etc.

We waited until 2 years for both DC.

I’ve always had the tv on. I didn’t breastfeed in silence....from what age did she actively start “watching it” no idea. Cbeebies probably became a staple from a c 5 months old.
This does not mean we didn’t go to baby groups, go for walks, go swimming, “read” black and white books, tummy time. It just meant if I had to prepare food or hold an adult conversation sometimes mr tumble took over

My 4 month old used to watch 1 episode of teletubbies at my dinner time so I could eat in peace. He seemed to really enjoy it.

I think it is more about amount rather than age, a few minutes here and there should not cause any harm.

Oh way younger than I ever thought I’d let her! She used to watch random ducks and farm animals on you tube 😂😂 and whilst I normally try to limit it she is 3 and watching far too much Netflix in lockdown.
This has always been balanced with loads and loads of outdoor time and play dates though. I would have been really judgemental pre actually having a child but now I just think kids need a bit of downtime. Too much activity overstimulates my daughter and she gets too full on. A bit of zone out time is fine! She’s 3.

Anyone coping without the odd bit of tv whilst in the house is a better person than me! Whilst the weather has been good we have spent lots of time in the garden which helps but I need the odd pocket of time not following the demands of a toddler to keep sane/ make meals/ put a wash on

My DS wasn’t interested in the tv until about 10 months. He has an elder brother too so we have the TV on at times for him.

Elder brother has autism, adhd and other SEN issues so we use the TV at mealtimes as a gentle distraction to help him to eat which stops him distracting his younger brother from eating.

When big brother isn’t about we have the tv on at breakfast. At 6am it’s nice to let DS eat his breakfast and me drink my first coffee of the day in peace!

It’s not on during the day. Maybe for background noise use the radio?

www.ft.com/content/0eee3338-7928-11ea-9840-1b8019d9a987

Interesting article on childrens TV. Key point is

'What’s important is what the content is and what activities it’s crowding out'

The tv is always on in the background in our house.
Don't know what age my dd's were when the started watching it.

I can’t access the link but I agree about balance. I try to not watch tv too much but the language my little one (20 months) has picked up from for example, the Julia Donaldson adaptations is incredible. We do have the books too and read them but she now quotes lots from them , and I do believe watching them has played a huge part.

We started on in the night garden around 12 months but didn’t watch anything else until 18 months or so. Once they start watching it you then end up struggling to watch your own stuff so hold out as long as you can!

Thanks everyone! Most of you expressed my thoughts exactly! It's all about balance! We spend a lot of time in the garden during the lockdown and before we went for walks mostly every day, attended swimming and sensory classes, book club, went to playgrounds...at home we play a lot, read books, so tv is not the only thing he does all day.
I guess I will just pay more attention to what I am watching since he is interested in that too now and limit his cartoons to certain times, for example 15 mins in the morning so I can make some breakfast and 20 mins before dinner again for me to cook and prepare for bath time.

In the ideal world maybe it should be from 3 years old, but our family is definitely not ideal. When it's just me and my baby at home I need to listen or watch smth for my own sanity, otherwise I can go crazy..

The TV is on pretty much all day here, but DD (13 months) doesn’t often pay much attention. She’ll actually sit still and watch it for maybe 2/3 minutes before she wanders off and plays with a toy.

I only have a 4 month old and so far she's watched a training video on web security (dad working from home, very it was a cartoon and way better than anything my work gives us!)

We haven't had an aerial plugged into our tv fur about 5 years, so no idle tv for us But that was before the baby so well see how quickly it gets plugged in now, hehe.

I'm thinking of waiting until she's or enough to appreciate Shaun the Sheep properly. She's fascinated by screens already really even if she's just watching my other half work. She's watches his boring code which she likes so obviously more interested by a bright screen than anything.

My baby is 7 weeks and loves the telly. He sat through the whole of toy story yesterday in his dad arms looking away occasionally. Obviously we play with him, talk to him, take him for walks before I get slagged off 😁

My 18 months old loves fireman Sam, the wiggles. TV doesn't have to be negative. Just go for it if you want