Feeling like a crap mum.

[Lemonsqueezy123]

My daughter is 3.5 years old, she's the light of my life and we genuinely have the most unbreakable bond. I'm a single, full time working parent and my daughter is in pre school 5 days a week, admittedly very long hours, however I am aware she adores pre school.
At the moment, I just feel like a bit of a let down owing to the amount of TV and screen time I let her watch. She wakes up at 6.30am at weekends and we stay in bed having cuddles until 7.15am, however during that time she wants to watch Peppa Pig and screams blue murder if i don't put it on. We regularly have play dates and I take her for day trips when extra finances allow, I receive no maintenance from her father and he is not in her life to see her. I suppose I just feel like a let down, it's 10am and we're watching Cinderella for the 2000th time. I've hurt my foot this weekend and finding it really hard to walk, yesterday I took her for a long walk despite the pain and I'm paying for it today. We do other activities in the day, colouring, crafts, jig saws but her default is always to want to watch TV and to be honest she likes to just sit and watch a programme.
I don't know how to break the cycle, I'm so exhausted by being a single working parent, I know I should ease up on myself but I feel like I'm letting her down :(

She’ll be getting a lot from day care and sitting relaxing at home is equally valuable! So many parents push their children into activities that they are exhausted!

The best you can do for your child is engage them in conversation, play games and cook together.

She’ll be absolutely fine! Give yourself a break.

You're not letting her down, but I've been there where I realised I was relying on the screens far too much and I just broke the habit.

Instead of laying in bed with a phone for Peppa, let her pick a book to read. If she's not happy with reading instead then just get straight up so you're both out of that environment.

My DD wasn't happy for the first few days but she soon got used to our new way of doing things and it's much better this way.

Seriosuly sounds like you do loads, every person I know has the tv on with kids, we still spend way more time with and on our kids than previous generations. Relax!

Don’t worry so much about ‘screen time’, it sounds like you do a lot with her outside of this, I only work 4 days and have a DH, you are a star. I need screen time and down time myself, little people also need down time and relaxing. Watching Cinderella again is not going to hurt her.

My little one has iPad time when she first wakes up (she’s a bit older than your DD but has done this since she’s little) and comes in with me and I try and snooze a bit longer.

Happy mummy, happy baby (or preschooler in this case!).

I’m a 80s baby, we always used to watch cartoons in the morning as a kid, loved it!

What? We have far more screen time than that and my kids are academically very bright and social children.

She doesn't get screen time during the week as she's doing long hours at preschool you say? So I wouldn't worry!

I feel like I wrote this post myself! I am currently in the bedroom as I am exhausted (just got over covid but had no time to actually be sick as I'm a single parent too). My dc is in the living room watching TV and I feel so guilty even though we've been out since 8.30 this morning and just got home. All I keep telling myself is a bit of tv isn't a bad thing and everyone needs to relax (even kids). I think single parents put a lot of pressure on themselves to be the 'perfect' parent as you feel judged. Sorry, not much advice there but I do feel the same.