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

Screen time is so bad for children. It interferes with their sleep, causes overstimulation, increases anxiety...... there are SO many things.

We absolutely don't have the tv on all day and my two (3.5 and 2) don't have tablets. I won't be buying them any screens until the last possible moment I can.

Amount of TV depends on a lot of factors- if they get up at 5am then normally the TV goes straight on for a couple of hours then it's off for the rest of the day. I occasionally let my older one watch something whilst the smaller one naps or we watch it to fill a bit of time in the afternoon for example. But I try to limit it where I can and prefer to do trips, crafts, games, free play, books etc if we can.

We hardly ever have the tv on except on the days I have both of them (4 and 2) on my own which is usually once a week. BUT let me be clear - this is only because my DD is such a nightmare when the tv is turned off! Nine times out of ten she will have a huge meltdown because she doesn’t want to stop watching and I always think to myself that the tv break wasn’t worth the stress that followed! We do sometimes watch tv together as a family before bath time, or a family film at the weekend. My DD only has her screen for long journeys in the car really

The only screens we had when they were small was tv. Around 3 hours each day at 4. Hour in the morning, hour at lunchtime then an hour or so before bath/bed. Was nice downtime for them and with a husband who worked away and me hosting students, those hours saved my sanity and meant we weren’t permanently walking on a layer of debris 😁

Mine has it on for a few hours a day if you tot it all up. Usually 30 mins-hour at a time a couple or few times a day. Always try to get out and about for a few hours a day too and do other stuff, usually the beach (2 mins walk) or parks, or just going to town for lunch and a wander.

My SIL has 3 kids under 6 and her tv is on constantly in the background, sometimes they watch it and sometimes they play. All thriving. They also get taken out and about lots. As long as there is balance with reading, playing, being outside etc I think there’s no issue, the majority of mums I know use the tv/tablets a LOT. It’s an inevitable thing in this modern world and is just another way of learning and entertaining.

Yep - TV is on a fair bit, more something I have on than him but still it's on.

Son plays fine whilst it's on and then does watch some baby TV when I need to get on. I don't personally see any issue with it and he sleeps like a dream so I'm happy to do it for my sanity. Do whatever works for you and don't feel any guilt. Life's too short.

When my 3 were little (3 under 4!) I was really strict. Most days nothing and then the occasional programme. By the age of 6,7,8 we did a film at the weekend, and an hour on Mondays and Fridays with nothing midweek. Now they are teens so aim for 2 days with nothing but try and encourage them off the rest of the time. Luckily they are really sporting and sociable so go out a lot but at home it's quite a lot and too old to do much about it. Some of their schoolmates do nothing else but game or scroll on their phones. Even when they are out. It is worrying and in all honesty I think people give too little of a fuck about it. Physical health and mental health of this first generation to grow up constantly around screens is already showing signs as being bad and when mine were babies smart phones didn't exist and not everyone had a tablet as they do now. You never saw toddlers watching TV at the supermarket or in their buggies. There are children near me that everytime they are out they are screened up. Maybe in the house they aren't otherwise they will be getting limited interaction from their parents. Mine have SN (ADHD and ASD) so screens would have been easy to use but it also affects them and made them forget how to properly play with their toys as always distracted.

Screen time is so bad for children. It interferes with their sleep, causes overstimulation, increases anxiety...... there are SO many things.

I've read various studies on it - and none of the kids were watching as many kids watch these days. They were studying children watching fixed TV with ads vegged on the settee (basically as I did for the 1-2 hours of kids TV available to me after school when I was a child).

My children watch what they choose, advert free, on tablets - that means that I've come in to find DS2 upside down on the settee, or planking between the freezer and the kitchen table (told off for that one). They watch everything - science videos, commercial cartoons, historical analysis, youtubers talking about their life, amateur cartoons, game playalongs, toy unboxing, creative play, craft videos, cute cats etc. It's a fundamentally different relationship with screens to my childhood

Screen time is so bad for children. It interferes with their sleep, causes overstimulation, increases anxiety...... there are SO many things”

Hmm. Ours had around 3 hours (tv) each day. They’re both happy, healthy adults now on firm course for firsts, one in the arts, the other in medical/sciences (that one in combination with marriage and parenthood).

Damn, are you telling me that had they not loved CBeebies they’d both be PHds by now? Oh bugger.

(our arts student’s name will probably be on screen in the credits in a few years. Loves film and tv. CBeebies probably helped kick start that 😁)

You can’t compare to others.
I have kids in school and clubs from 8am - 6pm everyday. Our screen time is lower because of this.
SAHM would be a different story.
Also no screen time at all is not great when the kids start school. Homework is mostly completed on apps, they use tablets and computers. They will be behind in class if they don’t know how to use them.

We are strict about tv, especially for younger ones. They are allowed 30 minutes 3-4 times a week and we only budge from that if they are ill. I don’t judge anyone allowing more if it keeps the family happy, but I would say that because screens are easier than other forms of entertainment (eg reading, playing) there are some people (adults and kids) who have to have firm boundaries around screens to help them do other things. My kids are really good at entertaining themselves, because they’ve had to be!

DD has to entertain herself a lot at home (I tutor after school). She has free rein on the TV and iPad now at 6.5y but I didn't introduce this until very late on (5.5y maybe) so other ways to spend time were very well established so she doesn't naturally gravitate to the screen first. She will sometimes choose to watch something on iPlayer but it's genuinely an active choice of one of many things she does to entertain herself.

Her screen time totals around 6 hours a week which is a split of roughly:

1 hr a week homework on the iPad
30 minutes a week doing Wordle, Spelling Bee games on my phone with me in the mornings
30 minutes playing games/drawing on the iPad
2 hr film night at the weekend
1–2 hours iPlayer across three afternoons while I'm teaching

I don’t personally think a lot of screen time is a good thing. At 1 my dc had none. By 4 maybe 1hr a day - proper watching not just in the background or random scrolling.

Are you trying to work with them at home as well? That must be impossible. Can you organise some proper childcare?

Some days my 4 yr old has been known to watch a film and some episodes of a cartoon..
Other days nothing at all.

Far too much at the weekends at the moment for our nearly three year old as I have bad morning sickness and can't get off the sofa to play with him. Husband can but is also doing all of the cooking and cleaning at the moment.

On weekdays he has one hour of tv in the evenings before dinner.

We have 3 under 3 they get half an hour after breakfast and half an hour after tea and that's it. It's very noticeable if they stay over at a certain family member they stop talking,playing etc because they've watched tv all day

I have a 1 year old a nearly-3 year old. The 1yo gets no screen time whatsoever. The 3yo has recently started wanting to sit at my desktop PC a couple of times a week and type out words (with lots of help of course!) It's been great for helping her recognise letters. She also sometimes sits on our laps and we flick through photos with her. She doesn't get any solitary screen time - it's always an interactive thing with us.

We have a telly but honestly it's mostly used for gaming after the kids have gone to bed. If we do put it on in the day it's to stuff the kids aren't interested in, like the news or sport, and they don't really look at it.

That sounds strict but honestly I don't really have strong opinions about screen time and am happy to use it when it helps. When DD1 was potty training we'd put Hey Duggee on to keep her on the potty. Worked a treat at first but after a week or two she lost interest in it. We've put several other cartoons on since but none of them hold her attention. The only thing she's ever sat and just avidly watched was a 20-min "how it's made" style video about pizza

We don't have any tablets and I'm not downloading a bunch of kid apps on my phone, so.

We don’t have any limits on screens here, it’s mostly naturally limited by doing other stuff. DD watches about 30mins on her iPad before school, probably an hour or two on weekend mornings. After school it varies, if we are going to the park, swimming, bath, etc then probably just a couple of episodes of Bluey before bed. But on a Friday we often have a lazy evening and eat pizza on the sofa watching The Simpsons, so that might be a couple of hours. I don’t really worry about it so long as she is doing plenty of other stuff- crafts, imaginary games, time outside, etc. I don’t do background tv though, the noise would annoy me!

Mine watch loads but we don't have it on all day. Mine are 3 and 1, and we have Bluey on in bed in the mornings while we cuddle and I drink two coffees - the baby plays in her cot as it's in my room. That's probably about an hour. Then we have the tv on after nursery and before dinner, so that's probably about half an hour. If we need to get stuff done in the evening before bed then my eldest will watch something then too for about 20 mins, but that's pretty rare. On a non nursery day the tv is on a bit more as we tend to do things - tidy up, play, an activity like painting, or go out to a group - and then I put it on for a bit so I can have a break and drink a cuppa or get house stuff done for 30 mins. That might happen a few times a day depending on the day. Usually the baby will play with toys on the floor rather than avidly watch. However she probably gets put in her cot at least once a day for 15 mins and I put something on for her like teletubbies so I can jump in the shower or make some phone calls. I find it's tempting to have it on all day, but it would drive me crackers!! If I feel like we are using it too much I put the Toniebox on instead.

21mo has 30mins with breakfast. That's it on a regular day.

If we're going on a long car trip (rarely) then up to 2 hours.

We don't have a TV. I let my 3 year old watch up to about 15 minutes a day max on a tablet. I prefer him to figure out how to entertain himself with toys, kinetic sand etc and involve him in doing chores.

I am at work in the week though so perhaps I'd feel differently if I was home all the time with him.

I'm strict on nothing being on before school or in the car but after homework everything just falls apart and I end up trying to shoo people outside or make up jobs to get them away from screens because I'm too busy (and too much of. wuss) to take hold of the situation (this is honest me speaking, I'd never admit to this in real life!!) I try to at least get them to watch tv instead of having them on phones or tablets which obviously are closer to their faces, have them scrunched over etc. Youtube has been banned for the moment as any time I hovered they were watching RIDICULOUSLY inappropriate stuff. Ages are 8 to 15. 15 yo gets most freedom but are trying to reel it back in as he was showing physical signs of it, black circles/red around his eyes, horrendous concentration and not sleeping properly (this is from phone use), Screens are scary and technology has amazing uses but should definitely be accompanied by a lot of outdoor time or games/reading. I find if I can carve out some time and challenge them to a board game or something before bed instead of us being on screens things are infinitely better! (sorry for the length of this!)

Mine are older now (12&9) but full disclosure, my youngest was pretty much raised on Toy Story 1,2&3 and all the Shrek movies.

They were the only things that keep 3 year DS1 occupied for any length of time and so DS2 would automatically watch them for hours as a baby.

It meant I could make dinner, prep lunches, bottles, bags for daycare and preschool and sort the dogs out. DH worked long hours so I did what I had to do.

No regrets. My mum also reminded me that the only thing that kept me quiet or still was The Sound Of Music when I was 3 back in 1982 - same thing, different generation 😅

My boys are fine and dandy, spend loads of time on iPads but spend equal amounts of time playing football with their friends, swimming and doing other stuff "they" tell you your kids should be doing!