Screen time. Be honest.

[Letsbekindplease]

I’ve looked at a few threads but they were all quite old.

I was wondering how much screen time your kids have ?

I have two kids age 1 and 4 and honestly, the tv is never off. It’s me more than them and just down to pure habit.

I wouldn’t say my son plays his tablet that often. Maybe 1 hour every couple days. but the tv is never off. I don’t restrict it.
we do get out. I do try and do wee craft things. Is this bad? My friend seemed horrified the other day!

id say my 4 year old is a smart wee boy but painfully shy.

just wondering what everyone else is doing screen time wise.

it lets me get work done if I’m honest lol

I don’t love tablets for a 4YO tbh. It just seems so much more intense than the TV. We’ve just started allowing our 6YO 30 minutes at the end of day providing she’s behaved well, homework is done, she’s tidied up etc. Before that they were only for flights and long car journeys. I’m pretty lax on the TV at weekends but during the week they’re at school/nursery so they only get the opportunity to watch it for a bit in the evenings whilst I’m making dinner. What work are you trying to get done? Do you mean like housework or are you trying to do paid work without adequate childcare?

This is such a difficult one - so many strong opinions and everyone thinks they’re right!

We don’t have a tv in the house. Chiefly because I have zero boundaries.

4yo probably watches 30-60 mins a day on my laptop. Disney+ or Netflix kids.

2yo doesn’t really watch anything.

they definitely self entertain for a couple of hours a day though - blocks / cars / Lego / duplo etc - and my intensive input for things like crafts + treasure hunts etc is max 40 mins a day.

5yo is at school most of day. 2yo bumbles round doing jobs with me. Laundry / gardening etc.

I don’t have work deadlines though - small amounts of consulting work that can be done after bed time easily. So I can pick up and put down as needed. If I had a job I was fitting in, there would have more screen time.

If your children’s screen time isn’t interruption their engagement with other activities you’re probably fine!

If the children aren't interested in the TV I would turn it off. As a child I spent a lot of time in a house where the TV was always on and I hated the constant background noise, and never felt I could concentrate on other toys / games as there was always a high pitched jingle or flickering images distracting me.

Do they spend any time at nursery / preschool or other groups?

My DS is only 18mo but we rarely have the tv on. He’ll get the remote and ask for bluey occasionally , and I’ll put on a couple episodes, but once it’s on he’s not that fussed, he just likes the theme tune!
If he were more interested in it and I could put it on for half hour and make dinner in peace once in a while I would!

Once he’s older though and drops naps that nap time will be replaced with an hour or so of tv.

I don’t like the tv just on in the background though. I love music so we always have music on rather than tv on in the background.

I'm guilty of having the tv on in the background most of the time. But I do break it up now by playing (kids ) music on the Alexa and having the tv off for a few hours.
They don't sit and watch all day it's just in the background really

Thinking of my grandchildren, the tv is on most of the time but that's my habit and it's not children's programmes. When it's not a children's programme (they prob watch about an hour of kids stuff) they just play with toys. I play with them sometimes, not always. No tablets.

I couldn’t stand the tv being on all day that would drive me bonkers. I have a 1 year old is 45 mins ish in the afternoon while I run around doing dinner etc and a bit more Saturday and Sunday morning.

To me having the tv on means there is no brain space and you are allowing the tv to fill the silence instead of singing, dancing chatting as you are doing things ( commentary) an audiobook on a speaker or music on a speaker would be better

3 kids 8,5 and 1 and currently have 2 TVs on 😄 DS8 is on his switch and DS5 is making a den so tv is just background. DC1 is watching Baby Club and dancing along. And now wants to do drawing.

The older 2 have to be fed, dressed, bags packed, ready for school before they get screens and we never had trouble leaving for school. Both of those regularly had YouTube kids on my phone by the time they were 18 months which is horrendous (absolute rubbish, total cesspool of entertainment) and definitely not doing the same with current 1 yo. They do have fire tablets but always found them to die pretty soon so they don’t like them v much.

My 5yo has 30 mins of cartoons after dinner, not every day, about half the week.
My 18m doesn't have any screen time. No TV in the playroom which is on the same floor as the kitchen, she'd have to be upstairs to watch TV so it's better for her to just play with toys near me. I get most of the meal prep sorted the night before when she's sleeping so I don't have to spend ages doing it during her awake time.

My youngest is 6yo now but he's more into playing video games with his siblings who are older.

I can understand your concerns. It worries most of us. As long as you are doing other activities each day with them like walking outdoors in the fresh air then don't worry too much.

My DD is now 18 months and I never have TV on when home and she is exposed to TV only when DH has the news on in the mornings and evenings. She isn't bothered about TV at all. I do let her watch YouTube maybe 10min a day if we don't have anything else to do but much rather we read books, go out or play.

2yo would watch Bing 24/7 if allowed. She gets at most 2x 3 episodes per day except when we are unwell or she is, then all bets are off, she has seen both Winnie the Pooh movies in full and the cars movie (in 2 parts) not all on the same day though! If we are all well then we go out for most of the day and she goes to nursery 2x per week. It’s just when we are ill and can’t go out it is tough (she does drawing, blocks, plays with dolls and stuffed toys, has a play kitchen, play dough, musical instruments, sticker books and loads of books which we use too but attention span on these is about 5 mins each vs much longer watching a cartoon) I’m hoping the tonie box at Christmas will be an addition that might reduce screen time a bit.

I'm totally relaxed about screen time. I'm a big reader and so is DC1 so in my experience it doesn't affect my children at all as DD would often relax on her bed with a book but I appreciate others feel differently. I don't have rules or set times. On a miserable wet day there will obviously be more screen time than on a lovely day like yesterday when everyone is outside or whatever. One of my DC has asd so that also changes my viewpoint and i don't see screens as the enemy.

I think if you’re a SAHM or your children aren’t in wrap around care then it’s harder to have zero screen time. One of my friends is always going on about how they don’t have a TV in their house and how she hates them/ it rots childrens brains, but her kids to 7.30-18.30 in child care every day.

I have a 3YO and a baby. The TV is on quite a bit although I try to turn it off if no one is actually watching! Also try to have a rule of no TV after dinner although this has broken down recently as I need the toddler occupied while I sort the baby out. I would prefer less screen time for the toddler.

We do go outside a lot and play a lot together inside as well.

I know people say screen time can affect behaviour. My toddler is very high energy, is currently having a lot of emotional 'meltdowns' and is aggressive. It's not directly related to e.g. turning off the TV though, it's all the time. Ideally I'd like to test a screen detox and see if anything changes!

sometimes it's the only way to stay sane 😂

At 1 and 4 - none

we got a tv and tablets when they were 11 and 5

Now at 14 and 9, probably about 2 hours a day in the week and maybe 4-5 at weekends on tablets or TV

My kids have had tablets since they were twoish - they are 12 and 9 now.

They have unlimited screen time (mainly tablet - I'm pretty much the only one who uses the TV), but I often listen in to see that it's not appropriate, and ask them to watch something else if I find the voice of the person annoying (like the ones that seem to continuously yell as they play computer games). They are also expected to put it away without argument if I ask them (eg. for dinner, or if we're going out or doing something, or it's bedtime).

They are both near top in their classes, youngest could be more active, but that's a me issue (lack of time), polite, nice boys.

I don't think it's the screens that are the issue, and more the expectation of how they are used/how they are to behave with them.

At that age we had screen time at specific tricky bits of the day. Like just before a meal to give me a chance to cook, or when tired at the end of the day.

Never had it just on in the background though, as neither of mine would have self limited at that age, they would have just stayed glued to it.

My kids - both then and now - have the ipad on as they're doing other things - so at 4, eldest would have Doc McStuffins, or Stampy Longnose on whilst playing with his cars or playdough. Youngest has it on in the background while he draws etc.

They are expected to turn it off when they need to concentrate - eg. doing homework, and this has never been a problem.

Im lucky in a way as my DS gets bored of the TV after a while and goes off to do some colouring etc, I find leaving out other things to do away from the TV means he's not as interested
We usually let him have it in the morning while we make his breakfast and it stays on till he's getting ready for school but he's not always watching it, after school it's off until after dinner

I'll be honest, I had the tv on loads, I am disabled and sometimes not very mobile so CBeebies was on when needed. I tried to put on TV channels without adverts but Ch5 Milkshake on school mornings with Little Princess and Fifi and the Flowerpots. Remember Youtube stated in 2006 and internet connectivity was rubbish for videos.

Once things like the Wii, 3DS or later xbox we had rules that said if they kept up their homework and good attitude then they could have tech but we also watched stuff as a family too, hopefully entertaining but educational stuff like Bill Bye The Science Guy, Slo mo guys, Crashcourse (John Green) youtube series like Industrial Revelations etc. So they were not on their own on screens all the time. We played family board games, cards, dominoes, went out for bike rides, walks, visited zoos, wildlife parks etc so I feel as long as there are other things going on then it is all in balance.

Mine are now 20 and 17, totally fine, lovely boys who don't have square eyes or issues coming off the computer and academically brilliant because we used youtube for things like GCSE revision.

Our children are growing up in a world that is vastly different to the one we grew up in. We have to embrace technology, now social media is another thing altogether. Definitely not something they should have in primary school.

3 year old has about 20 mins of tablet time in the morning when he wakes up and quite honestly, that's it for the rest of the day. He might watch a bit of tv later on or it's in the background but he's like the Energizer Bunny and doesn't sit still so it doesn't hold his attention. Believe me, I'd LOVE if he would sit and stare at a screen for a bit, I'm exhausted!

We don't do background TV because I hate background noise. Also if my 3yo is watching TV then she is fully watching it and won't do anything else (which tbh is handy if I want to keep her out of trouble while I'm in the shower). In all honesty she watches at least 1-2hrs a day (1hr on a nursery day, 2hrs or sometimes more if we're at home). She rarely watches programmes on a tablet but she does occasionally play games on them.
We try to keep to vaguely "quality" programmes but the dreaded paw patrol features more than I'd like 😵‍💫