How much screen time do your children have a day?

[RedRobyn24]

I have young children, a 1yo and a 5yo for context

I’m just struggling a lot lately and I’m very strict about screen time, just wondering what others are doing and if maybe I should relax a bit more

I have a 1yo and a 3.5 yo so similar ish. 1yo doesn’t watch the screen when it’s on yet - too busy emptying kitchen cupboards!! Only just 1 though.

3.5 yo watches tv from 5/5.15-5.45 daily after nursery, and then probably one day a weekend in the afternoon for around 45 minutes. Not mental, not ideal but it allows me to cook tea etc etc. She’s so tired after nursery she doesn’t have much else left in her! I choose the film and she doesn’t swap and change, or watch endless episodes of brain rot which helps me pretend to feel better 😂

2 and 5 yo. Screen time is only TV, no tablets or phones.

They have around an hour per day during the week, often less but rarely more. Weekends range from 0-2 hours per day depending on what we are doing. If it’s 2 hours on one day we’d probably try and aim for a little less on the other.

3.5 and 1, they don’t have any except when my eldest watches the football with her dad. They wouldn’t know what a tablet was. BUT mine are both NT (or appear so at the moment!) and I’m a SAHM with lots of time to entertain them both. Neither of them have ever watched a kids TV show, so they don’t even know what they’re missing. My DS is 17 now and we were a lot more lax with him, but he didn’t have a tablet or anything - his only screen time was the TV. None of them have ever been allowed to play on our phones which helps too.

Most days zero, twice a week 30 mins, about every 3 weeks up to two hours in a day (this is when I am
exhauated or ill and needing to do something) my son just turned 3.

God masses. DCs aged 8&3 watched Shrek 1&2 today. DC aged 10 has done a couple hours of gaming and is now watching Traitors. They’ve also all made biscuits, been for a pub lunch and held conversations and sat nicely, read books, eldest has been to a friend’s, oldest 2 played 2 board games with their grandad.
Tomorrow DC3 will be home with me and we will do many many activities and we’re going to her friend‘s house too, but she will still have hours of screen time. Cest la vie!
Older 2 get up by themselves and watch telly from like 6am. It’s only a problem if it’s a problem IME.

I find the more the tv is on the worse his behaviour is

Sometimes loads, sometimes none, just depends on what’s going on, really. It’s not something I care about much but I suppose that’s from a place of privilege as I don’t have the kind of children where I need to care about it overly.

Well done

At that age my 1 year old watched none, at 5 they watched about 45 mins 3 days a week and a film once a week. No other screens until older.
I was strict. Honestly feel it paid off compared to lots of their friends.

5 & 10 year old get an hour a day on the iPad and it goes off on a timer. 10 year old gets an extra hour if he reads 12 pages of a book,

2 year old get 45 mins in the evening with the others when they watch tv while I make dinner. Eldest plays football 16 hours a week so is very active

normally this is true and we stick to it however I currently have hypremisis and can’t cope so digital daycare has taken over abit while dh is at work. It’s only a few weeks as it normally subsides by 13 weeks

At those ages, my DDs occasionally watched telly/DVD - Peppa Pig and Thomas the Tank Engine or Mr Maker and Justin (Rapids Johnson and Anne Teake), but hardly ever. Mostly we were out in the afternoons for swimming or somesuch. DH and I didn't have smartphones then nor pad/tablets - granted we were way behind the times.
If you can choose, apparently telly (formerly the work of the devil) is not as bad as iPads/individual screens because it can be ignored. Telly means that they can wander off and/or play with toys, alongside telly if they choose. But pads/tablets require constant engagement which saps attention span and stifles brain growth.

(Back in those days, MN recommended 'gallons of telly' to help mums cope with feeding babies vs rambunctious toddlers.)

Weekdays - 20m. 2x Bluey episodes as part of the bedtime wind down. Youngest might get an hour of TV (couple of Julia Donaldsons or a Thomas film) on Mondays or Fridays after nursery before school pick up, but I usually try and use that window for the supermarket or the park as, once he starts watching, he’ll have a meltdown if I say it’s time to go do pick up.

Weekends - too much if I’m honest. They both wake at 6am if we’re lucky and they get a Disney movie in our room so we can ‘lie in’ until 7.30, then usually an episode of something while we get dressed and then something while we make tea. So probably 2.5h of TV in the day. They do have tablets but they only get used when we’re driving to the in-laws every 6 weeks (1h of a 2.5h drive) or when we’re flying on holiday (length of the flight once a year).

Ages 5 and 3.5, 5yo is NT, 3.5yo suspected ND.

im very relaxed tbh

tv only - the tablets only make an appearance on long journeys / flights

the kids only ever here like 2 hours in the evening anyway after school club / nursery

weekends I don’t care how much we watch at home

we are out LOADS usually gone 9-2/3pm parks/softplay/activities

after that I’m fine with tv if that’s what they want to do 🤷‍♀️

Mine are 6&4, and it’s just tv, no tablets.

Probably 5-10 mins in the morning. We only allow this once totally ready for school/pre school, including shoes on. And any whining about it being turned off when it’s time to leave would mean we don’t have it on again (they’ve never whined about it).
After school it depends. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays it’s none because of clubs/wraparound. Tuesdays and Fridays probably about half an hour.
Weekends totally vary. They’re allowed more in the mornings before breakfast. But yesterday that was it as we were out all day. Today was more because we all watched a film together this afternoon. I don’t have any rules around time limits, I’ll just only allow it if I feel like they haven’t had too much.

Small ones 5 & 7 have tablets, they are not restricted on them tbh and use on and off through out the day. They spend more time playing than on their tablets though.

15 year old, ps5 tv xbox phone, unrestricted, spends alot of time watching tele but again, likes to be out in the garden or out on bike rides.

We have a television which is probably turned on maybe 3/4 times a year as I use my phone for watching shows.

There has been times my 7 year old has needed nudging to put it down and do something else a bit, but the younger one isn't really fazed by hers at all.

Edit to add - on a weekend, maybe 3 hours per child? Not in one go

Weekends 6-7 hours, weekdays - 4 hours average. Because their Dad has intimidated me and I cannot stop them from watching unless I entertain them instead. They aren’t babies - they are 4 and 7. Very capable of playing without screens.

At that age 5 year old would watch telly after school. 1 year old none.

7&8, no TV Monday to Friday, very limited TV at weekends, unlimited TV when ill. No other devices ever.

13 year old son and it's his screen time is not great to be honest. He does have a life though and is out in the woods bmx'ing with his friends most days getting filthy, plays for the local football and cricket teams, does his maths tutorials on Sunday mornings and does his homework without a fuss but yeah at home he is glued to his phone. I personally would have preferred not to have let him have a phone but when all his friends have one I don't want him to be the odd one out.

DS is 3 and has his own ipad and gets some time on it after nursery during the week to wind down after a busy day. More during the weekends.

Twin DD's are 2 in April and don't have their own ipads yet but TV time is similar to DS's ipad time though the TV is always on when we're at home, just not necessarily always Bluey or whatever.

I feel like we have a good balance though we aren't strict about it. They are active, do plenty of things at nursery and also still play plenty at home too.

my daughter 7 and gets 1 hour in the week and 2 hours at the weekend

Screens means TV for us we don't have tablets. Kids are 5 and almost 3.

During the week - none at home (usually). Eldest was really shocked when starting school that "the TV board at school is on ALL DAY". After school/nursery they play, craft, listen to music, read stories, whatever. 3 days of the week they have activities/clubs/swimming after school so nobody misses TV. It's just our norm.
During the weekend - 2 episodes of something each day, so the duration of time spent watching TV varies. They choose (and have to agree) what they want to watch - be that a 30min short film or a 5min Alpha blocks, they still get 2 episodes.

I don't keep track or limit it. My son is 4. But say, on an average weekday, he'll have 30 mins in the morning, and then up to a couple hours after nursery. When we are home all day, it's a lot harder to limit, I must admit. But then again we spend a lot of time doing puzzles, reading books, playing with his figures together - so it doesn't worry me. He's very sociable, knowledgeable in his interests and has talked well from an early age. We only have tv and very seldom do I let him watch something on my old mobile phone. No tablet.

In the week, very little, no TV on a morning, sometimes 30 minutes TV after school/before bed. More at the weekend. If it’s a rare day at home they usually watch a couple of films and play for about an hour on their tablets. They also go swimming, paint, craft, bake, go to the park, play board games. I’m not overly worried. We have found the less they have the less they want though which is a good thing.

Same as others, screens here is only the TV at home. No phones or tablet (we do have one that I bought when we had 4 flights over a weekend but didn’t actually use it in the end). DS is 19 months and will occasionally on a rainy afternoon watch one of the Julia Donaldson animations or the old 30 minute Wallace & Gromit ones. We watch with him and ask questions (who is that? What does the owl say?) etc. Sometimes an episode or two of Hey Duggee, particularly if he’s resisting brushing his teeth, we put that episode on and he asks for his toothbrush.

He’s totally screen free 3 days a week at nursery and we’re out of the house jumping in puddles or at a group or soft play or whatever at least once a day every day. His speech is way ahead for his age and he loves books above all else. I’m not worried.

I had unfettered access to TV all through my childhood but was still an avid reader and seem to be doing ok on it now 🤷🏻‍♀️