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'm sure your oh so clever children will be able to explain to you that individually different outcomes don't mean that at a population level something doesn't hold

Both things can be valid

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

Is it though? Presuming moderate use by kids that are over 2? Where exactly is the evidence for this? Just because in this day and age it must be nigh on impossible to find kids that don’t interact with screens at all. At DD’s school they do ICT twice a week, they watch educational cartoons sometimes if it’s a rainy playtime eg in reception it was always alphablocks and homework tasks often involve screens eg Timestable Rockstars.

If it is limited and the content is supervised then that is different. Having tv on in the background all the time does not fall under those parameters.

We have a 2yr old that goes to nursery 4 days a week. They watch about 30mins on nursery days after nursery with a snack before bath and bed. They generally chat through it telling me what’s going on! They also love books, so I don’t think it’s an either or thing. Don’t often watch at the weekend as we usually go out. Sometimes in the morning whilst we are getting ready to go out as it keeps them contained.

4 and 7 nothing monday to friday an hour or 2 saturday and sunday.

Almost 3yo here and I’m quite strict compared to my mum friends when it comes to screen time.

No tablet or phone time. No TV either until he was 2.5. I never have the tv on in the background.

Within the last 5/6 months I’ve started allowing small amounts of screen time. We sit down together and watch it and chat about what he’s watching. He has maybe 30-45mins twice a week on average I’d say. We’ll usually watch one of the Julia Donaldson stories or Winnie The Pooh. Im avoiding all the Peppa/Bing/Bluey/Cocomelon for as long as I possibly can!

If i'm home i'll hqve the TV on thr ahole time watching programmes etc. My DD is 5 and has a tablet and she'll probably spend 3-4hrs a day on a weekend day on it, spread out throughout the day - mixture of playing games and watching tv.

Weekdays less as she is at school.

We don't restrict tv or tablet

3 and 6 yo. On average, 20 minutes in the morning while getting ready. 0-90 mins between pick up and dinner time (depends on what else they want to do, average I'd say 30 mins for the younger one, 60 for the older one). More in school hols. Tablets for long journeys only.

Similar aged kids here.

They can watch tv after school - for about 1hr max.

Never tv in the mornings or during mealtimes.

No iPad.

Has to be a specific thing (eg a film, programme on Cbeebies). Not kids youtube. If the episodes start just autoplaying and they aren’t watching, it gets turned off.

I could not stand having the tv on constantly in the background. Not only the sheer pointless background noise, but it’s terrible for attention span. You are either actively watching it or it’s off.

Most of the time our kids our playing with toys or drawing instead.

We see these threads on Mumsnet all the time. SEN notwithstanding, there is literally no need for constant rolling screentime for early years children, and it’s terrible for them. Ruins attention span, imagination. Parents know all this - so just turn it off?

I allow my DS to watch TV 20 min in the morning, 20 min in the evening.

Another way to look at it:

There are only a few years in a person’s life when they are happiest pottering around, dressing up in costumes, lining up their stuffed toys, chatting to dollies, making up stories and singing nonsense songs to themself…. ages about 1-6. Why take that away from them with screentime?
Just leave them be.

My rule has always been, 'can you do something else' so if the TV is stopping them doing something more creative/physical/productive then it goes off.

So generally we don't have TV on unless they're on a long journey or we've got back from a club, theyre absolutely deathly tired so won't be reading or suddenly producing an abstract portrait of the neighbours dog, but I need to make their dinner.

We do also have fortnightly family film afternoon largely because we have no childcare,both work full time and are sometimes just needing an hour to stare.

I am very similar to you.

I put it on and it kind of just stays on throughout the day. They don't watch it the entire day as we're always out and about, but it's there if they wanted to.

Realistically, they probably watch it for 2-3 hours a day.

They go in the iPad for maybe half hour every week.

Kids are 6 and 9

At weekends they probably have around 3 hours of screen time

The rest of the time they are outside/activities/playing

Given the amount of hours in a day, I don't think it's that bad

2.5 year old, followed WHO guidance on no screens before 2 and they weren't interested anyway.

Will get up to 30 mins TV late afternoon on days we're home so 3x per week, when tiredness is heading in and we need to cook etc. Will be nice when they're a bit older and can watch a film.

Very recently started a 3 min video in mornings so I can do her hair and brush teeth if necessary. Use you tube kids with massively restricted pre approved videos only as it is absolute garage on there.

No intention of getting them a tablet, we don't have one so why would a child.

Feels I am stricter than most I know but I hate background TV anyway

Weekday

Tablet- 2x 30 min
Switch 1 hour
Tv - not much maybe 30 min

Weekend

Tablet- 2x 30min
Switch 2x 1 hour
Tv upto 2 hours if we watch a film

He's 8 and autistic

My kids are 5,7&9, in wrap around care 8am-6pm every day, but whenever we are in the house, the tv is usually always on, albeit with subtitles (because I can't cope without them!).

I have kids that are excellent readers (either through luck, or lots of subtitles, who knows!), and who will often ignore the tv completely in favour of other activities.

The middle one loves Minecraft and could probably spend an hour or so a day on that, and the eldest likes watching YouTube for drawing tutorials/origami tutorials, so sometimes evenings do revolve around screens, but also, it's a 10 hour day out the house each day for them, which is longer than most adults, so if they want to relax and decompress with a few hours of tv, I honestly don't care.

I have a very, very clingy toddler. If I wouldn't use a screen then I couldn't shower, cook or load the dishwasher etc. I literally poop with her on my lap. Screen time is a life saver for me right now. I'd rather that DD just played independantly while I do my thing a few meters away but that's apparantly not possible yet.

DD is 6 and has unlimited screen time.
She has a tv and Xbox in her bedroom, and an iPad.

She likes to finish off the day with a bit of tv in bed, also occasionally likes to play online with her cousin on Minecraft.

She plays with other toys too but I don't demand she switch her devices off if she decides to chill for a bit. She has good self regulation.

I shall burn in hell forever!

I'd focus more on the content of the screen time rather than just the length of time. For example, my 5yo DSD and I watch Dora the explorer every morning before school. She's learning Spanish at school so I thought watching Dora would support this.

She watches YouTube after school for an hour or so while I finish working (WFH). Some of which is absolute nonsense and some of which is quite educational. But it keeps her busy until DH comes home then we do some sort of activity or go to a hobby.

We don't allow a tablet in our house because we like to monitor what she watches however I know she has one at her mum's and has a lot of screen time there.

My dc are 4 and 7, in the week the tv is generally on when their both home so 1hr ish in the morning, 3½ in the evening but their not continually watching. The little one loves his toys and being outside or wherever i am so he watches a lot less than the oldest. The oldest also has reading, spelling and maths homework to do and does after-school sports club once a week, beavers one night and swimming another. Eldest has a switch but doesn't play on it very often. We don't really limit the time watching but we do limit how much rubbish they watch on YouTube (grown men playing computer games) when we get them to watch stuff like mister maker that generally leads to them doing some craft or science experiments.

I always have the tv on too. Regardless of if anyone is actively watching it. My 2 year old has a iPad and watches super simple songs, nursery rhymes and his favourite at the moment Halloween songs. He probably averages about 6/7 hours a week on it. We go out everyday to parks/shops/activity when I'm not at work. He attends nursery twice per week when I'm working. He's a smart, well adjusted little boy so I have no issues with it.

Off topic but Bluey is amazing! I keep trying to get DD into it but she is obsessed with Bing (which I hated at first but is actually ok). We avoid peppa and cocomelon though.

If DD is happily independently playing I do leave her be, and if I’m not trying to get a washing up/ dishes in the machine/ clean up dinner table etc I will play with her but sometimes she doesn’t want to potter around or play with toys (not interested in dressing up) and she’s not interested in helping me with my task so we watch a few episodes of CBeebies, I talk to her about the show and get what needs done finished. Or if I’m ill or exhausted or she’s ill then we watch it together.

I more relaxed than I was! I was strict when they were little, maybe 1/2 hour or CBeebies a day when they were toddlers. Once in school, they watched an hour or so after school which helped with decompression a lot - there are studies about how this can benefit ND children which they both are - albeit we did not know this then.

Screen time increased with lockdown. We bought them both tablets for online schooling and they accessed things like PE with Joe, BBC bite size, draw with Rob and so on.

Now I have one teen and one almost teen. All bets are off, and I am very relaxed now. They both have phones, which I check regularly. They’re not allowed tick tock and phones are out of their rooms overnight but both have their own TVs now, something I never thought I’d agree with. But it does really help them both recover from ND overwhelm. Both value and benefit from that time to decompress. This access doesn’t stop them from wanting family time or going out and other activities. They have time limits so they’re not watching too late, 9 in the week and later at weekends. It works for us.