Is this screen time?

[Sammie1990]

This may sound completely stupid so please be kind if so FTM here!

At around 8/9pm myself and my partner will watch an hour or 2 of TV in bed with DS in the room. This means that DS is exposed to the TV for this amount of time…he is obviously too young to understand the TV etc, but is this exposure classed as ‘screen time?’ I know this is bad for babies/children but surely other parents have their baby around when watching TV? Am I being ridiculous or is this something I should look to change?

You haven't said how old he is. But by the sounds of it he's too young for you be worried about it.

You'll know its an issue when that 2 hours of TV turns into a hours of Cbeebies

What is he doing while he is in the room?

Yes sorry he’s 15 weeks so too young to ‘interact’ with the TV as such but I’m worried about his eyes? So when he’s in the room he’s not doing much other than being a 15 week old 😂

If he is facing the screen and awake, yes I would call this screen time.

My husband and I often watched tv in the evenings while our son was that age. I would BF, then place him in the carrycot where he would sleep. I moved him to the darker part of the room. At no point was he staring ay the screen, so I wouldn't call this screentime.

Whether it is or isn't, it doesn't really matter. I don't think it will cause any harm.

I thought screen time was bad because they aren't interacting or doing other stuff rather than his eyes looking at the tv from so far away?!

When I was in the mother and baby unit the TV was on all day. In the mornings this morning then ceebeeies until 6pm. I would say none of the babies actually watched it! I wouldn't worry
My daughter only contact napped at that age. By 6 months I had watched 11 series of Grey's anatomy, I would say my daughter watched none, if she was awake she stared at the beam of light coming through the window or the light on the WiFi router.
We put on baby sensory videos on YouTube tube. Moving black, white and red shapes she engaged with them for 10 minutes after at a time but only on a good day. This I would count as screen time but I wouldn't say it was bad screen time.

Thanks everyone, it seems like such a silly question! He does sometimes look at the screen and sometimes just looks around the room. He does sleep as well, but his sleep is still all over the place at the moment. Sometimes I also play with him in the room. I suppose why I’m also worrying is because the TV is quite big for the room (my DH is a massive football fan and apparently you need a big TV to appreciate it 😂)

God I spend the first 4 months or so feeding/contact napping/ and cuddling both my babies on the couch binging endless Netflix shows and it didn’t occur to me that it was “wrong” or “screen time” what the hell else are you supposed to do when you have a very cute potatoe who just wants to feed and sleep in your arms all day. I think it’s absolutely fine.