30 weeks pregnant and feeling very guilty about my toddlers screen time

[Sungaze2022]

I am 30 weeks pregnant and I have had an awful pregnancy this time around, horrendous sickness, hospital trips because of this etc

My 2 and a half year old has a tenancy of waking uo super early!!! He always has done and nothing we do changes this so I've just accepted this is the norm

He often wakes up when my husband leaves for work at 5/5.30 am and I feel so guilty for letting him watch the tablet/ TV for an hour or so while o am lying next to him . I am absolutely exhausted from the sickness and general pregnant, I would not function during the day if I were to get up at this time . I work part time but the days at work are a serious struggle!!

I'm feeling so guilty about this, although most of what he watches is very educational! He's a bright boy and he is forever learning new things from what he's watching!! He was even telling me about fossils the other day !!

We have lots of time whwre we play together, out in the garden if as much aa possible and we go for walks every day/evening as we leave near lovely fields and paths that he runs around

I juat cant hel] but @till feel guilty about it for not giving him my full attention and letting him watch things in the morning 😫I think I've also got a bit of guilt about the new baby and not wanting him to think he's been replaced! Pregnancy hormones are definitely getting the better of me!

You are being ridiculous in a nice way
No harm will cone to him
Do what you need to do
And when you have newborn twins even more so
If he happy to watch cbeebies Nd learn
It s absolutely fine

Or just a newborn

Crikey DD1’s screen time rocketed when her sister was born and only the start of preschool has reined it back in! She’s very bright, sociable and independent so it doesn’t seem to have done her any harm.

You do what you have to do to survive. In the very latter stages of my pregnancy we did a few times set DD1’s Gro Clock half an hour later than usual and leave a tablet and a covered cup of milk in there to entertain her when she woke….in our defence, we did move house when I was 39 weeks!

My proper parenting begins at 7am. Before that it's TV or whatever else is needed so I can doze

Oh and my husband leaves a snack and drink outside the bedroom door before he goes to bed, so DD goes out to collect it when she wakes up, climbs into bed with me and watches TV while I snooze.

Nothing good happens before 7am IMO!

DS1 screen time also went up dramatically during my third trimester for same reason he was waking too early for my liking to cope with the day! Since DS2 was born it didn't go back down I do have guilt too but like PP it doesn't seem to of harmed him, he's doing well at pre school, don't feel bad you are doing your best :)

Thank you all for making me feel better and realise I'm not the only one doing this!

Like PPs, my daughter's TV time went through the roof while I was pregnant and had stayed sky-high - the baby is now almost four months old! Sometimes, when the weather is shite and the baby is grizzly and no one has slept, the TV is on literally all day in the background.

So give yourself a break, OP - any port in a storm. Pregnancy is hard enough, don't layer on the guilt as well!

Echoing all the PPs. All thought of limiting screen time went out the window when the first trimester symptoms hit, and effectively became unlimited screen time midway through the second trimester. Baby is a couple of weeks old now, and there's still no limits.

I remember watching A LOT of tv when I was a child and then as a teenager as well. And I mean an awful lot….! Despite this, I think I’ve done ok in life 😂 I have a good job, university degrees, good manners and social skills. So I’m sure a little extra screen time for a few weeks or even months whilst you’re pregnant and when the newborn is here won’t have a detrimental effect/ impact on your son’s life! Especially as you do other activities with him during the day as well. I would just let it happen for now and get your rest.

It's pretty normal, and doesn't seem to do any harm. It's not long-term habit forming either. My eldest watched a LOT of TV when I was pregnant with her baby brothers. I had awful sickness, and the anti emetics made me incredibly drowsy and I could hardly keep my eyes open. So we massively upped the amount of screen time (had had very out before). I was working 3 days a week but DD was home with me because the schools were closed (lockdown 1). Soooooo much TV! I was worried it would be habit forming and she would become a TV zombie and totally incapable of entertaining herself.

It hasn't happened. DTwins are 17 months now and yes, we do have the TV on sometimes - about 4 days a week the boys have a half hour DVD so I can tackle the kitchen without having them under feet, and DD has 30 mins every evening while I do the boy's bathtime. It's more than we used to have, but not a big deal.

It sounds like you're controlling what he watches, so I'm sure there will be no harm. My objections to screen time (mostly mobile devices) when DD was little were:

1. Effect of always focussing at the same distance if you use a tablet for long periods of time. If you have a TV, this probably isn't a problem. Or if time is kept short, similarly not an issue.

1. Exposure to adverts. I didn't want to be under pressure to fill the house with plastic commercial crap! But DVDs, iPlayer or similar BBC things allows you to avoid this.

1. Time could be "better" spent on other activities. Probably true, but if it's not a large proportion of the day and you are putting on things you consider to be educational then again, not a big issue. I had a little tick list on the fridge - had we done one outdoor thing, one tactile thing (playdo was the favourite!), spent time looking at books and sung something? Had DD had time choosing her own activities and entertaining herself?

Those were my feelings. I'm sure you have your own, which could be similar or completely different. I found it helpful to work out exactly what my objections were and decide what I wanted to do about them. It made me feel much better about it!