How much screen time is 'acceptable'?

[Bellabon]

Just as the title says - I'm curious as to how much screen time your LO's have per day? Just to add - my DS is to 14 months - I would say he has 1hr30mins a day which I personally think is too much - (I am changing this from today and trying to think of other things to do with him which is hard with the weather!).
But just curious do you agree this is too much? And honestly how many hours do your LO's have the TV on?
All honest answers are welcome please

As a PP just said many kids will be tired after a stimulating day at nursery and chilling out is probably good for them. Also if parents are at work all day, once they get home they may need to prepare dinner, deal with the laundry etc. There's a whole load of chores that working parents need to squeeze in to their day. I'm sure many would love to get home and just play with their toddlers but I expect there's not much time before the children have to go to bed. I completely understand why letting a tired child watch Cbeebies for an hour while the parent prepares dinner etc is a good solution.

I’m not saying kids should never ever watch TV. I’m saying I understand pp’s point about how much childcare is used. If a child is at nursery full time 7.30-6.30, then coming home and watching 1.5 hours of television each night, they are having basically no time with their parent or carer. I don’t think that’s good. Obviously if it suits other people, it suits them.

We used to have it on a lot but my eldest is not good with it so we took it away completely and has benefited every one in the family. But I'd say an hour in the morning and an hour after tea is not so bad if it suits the particular child and they're doing plenty of other stuff during the day too. Obviously if mum or child is poorly that's a different story but Anything more I think is probably excessive.

As much as they want. At 14 months that wasn’t very much because we didn’t have a TV in the living area and at 6 and 4 it’s a lot for one and a little for the other.

in my view limiting screens is like limiting books or toys or outings or conversations. Why restrict access to something so beneficial and which promotes a range of skills and learning. Widening access to the world is what we aim for not restriction.

11 month old gets 0. No tv, no videos on phones or tablets etc. No siblings etc so I just don’t ever put the tv on. Usually on the weekend his dad watches a football match so that might be on in the living room while he’s playing but that’s it.

I have DS 4 and DD 6 months. Zero screen time during the week - the TV doesn’t go on until the kids are down in bed.

Every Saturday and Sunday we watch one movie in the afternoon, usually a Disney one. We don’t have streaming services or TV, only a DVD player so the only choices we have are from our DVD collection. We also rent dvds from the library.

This is what works for us. I’m a teacher and see the negative effects of excessive screen time on kids, so I’m rather strict with it.

My 15 month old has absolutely minimal screen time - we've only caved in "emergencies" such as when me and my husband both had covid quite badly and we could just barely function.

However, I anticipate having a great deal more "emergency tv" moments in a month or so when my next baby arrives 🤣 my only thing I will continue to be strict on is that he doesn't use a phone or tablet. I think that's quite different to watching something on a television.

I wouldn't worry though tbh. Everything in moderation and taking circumstances into account. If all your child does all day is watch TV, then that's a problem obviously. But if you're out and about most the day or doing other fun activities, I can't see what damage a bit of TV will do. They'll all turn out alright!