SCREEN TIME - how much is too much

[TikkaJam]

I have DS 5 year old and DS 6.5 year old. On school days there’s no tv in the mornings and half hour after school, once homework/reading is done, then they can have 30-45 minutes. This is our first school summer holiday and they’ve been having 1 hour of tv in the mornings and another 30-45 minutes in the afternoon. They don’t have tablets of any kind (apart from a shared family one that we use for long haul flights) they don’t play video games or anything like that and they both spend a lot of time outside, climbing trees, biking, playing sports, swimming. I will add that I have some chronic health conditions that are all in a flare at the moment so there are times where the afternoon tv session creeps up to 1 hour (making it 2 hours daily) I feel terribly guilty about this, as we were formerly screen free and would be if it wasn’t for my health. I wanted to gauge how other family’s approach screens for this age group (5-7) in term time and school holidays

DS7 wakes up at 5am most mornings, comes downstairs and plays video games or watches cartoons until around 0630/0700. Sometimes DD5 also wakes up early and will join him.

They both have tablets they go on as they please.

We don’t really have a screen limit, tv is on almost all day, every day with a mixture of documentaries, movies or history shows.

My 5 year old is still on 1hr per day of tv. He has a tablet but it’s for travel days only.
For me it’s always been what works for you as a family. I personally don’t watch tv so when we turn the tv on it’s something we are doing. I know loads of friends whose tvs are constantly on but their kids are happy to have it as background noise and play etc which doesn’t really happen it my house. Partly because we only have one tv in the house which is in the livingroom and there is no toys in there

I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. We have none Mon-Fri during term time, and I have both of them Fri-Mon during the summer holidays (the little one at nursery T, W, T). When the younger one naps, the older one is allowed to watch up to 2 hours of TV. I don't feel bad as they have a busy morning and afternoon. Xxx

In the school holidays they have a film after lunch most days, so about 1.5 hours.

Sometimes they'll have a little after dinner as well, so probably around two hours total on these days.

Our setup is very similar to yours OP and I think it's fine, feels balanced to me. Some days when we have a few things planned we go a few days with no screens and they don't seem to miss it so I think it's ok!

I’d probably worry less about hitting an exact number of hours and more about whether screen time is replacing things like outdoor play, family time or sleep. During the school holidays I think it’s pretty normal for it to creep up a bit. If they’re still doing plenty of other things and coming off the screens without too much drama, I wouldn’t stress too much over the odd longer day.