How would you introduce limited tv/ screen time?

[thelma1985]

I feel harsh but I am concerned about the amount of tv my two children watch. Please don't come at me with criticism as I know they need little to no tv time. DC are 4&6. They watch tv, Netflix , YouTube kids, Disney + however neither of them have iPads/ switches/ tablets.

I am guilty of relying on it to get things done such as dinner time or ironing their uniforms.

I feel like the amount of time they spend watching tv could be put to better use, such as reading, playing with their toys, crafting but I am so exhausted by the end of the day it's easy to just put to telly on.

Okay, so I want to know has anyone ever gone cold turkey on tv for their children? What was the outcome? Am I creating a problem by letting them watch too much television?

N.B - I would probably say on average they watch about 3 hours weekday/ 4-5 hours at the weekend

At that age the TV remote would be oddly 'broken' to break the habit.

I would encourage music or audiobooks while they do another activity independently.

Just start doing other stuff with them and tell them that we're reducing screen time.
After a few days they'll get used to it and can be more independent.

Our TV has a timer which allows me to set how long I want the TV be on for.
I used to find it difficult to go back at the right time in between episodes so could get stuck in the endless creep of one more episode then one more episode. If I was trying to get dinner sorted now usually a 20min timer or getting ready to leave the house 10 minutes. She didn't used to complain too much about having the TV turned off and now she gets told the TV was tired and she starts pottering the room.

I try to fit the show length to the length of the slot. At the moment jojo and gran gran for a short period. A Julia Donaldson for half an hour and if she's ill or I need a longer period I put a film on as I know she will start playing and half watching it rather than endless Jo Jo and gran gran which would be watched without break.