Screen time; computer games; ipad; ; tv

[Luna9]

How long do you allow your children for screen time during school days, weekends, holidays? Do you allow them to play games? Do you use any parental controls?

Just looking for guidance

DD is 8. She watches approx an hour of TV a day. She also plays on tablet or WII for maybe 40 mins a day. I am twitchy about this amount of screentime. She doesn't have any consoles or a tablet of her own, which I believe would be considered unusual.

DD is 8. She watches approx an hour of TV a day. She also plays on tablet or WII for maybe 40 mins a day. I am twitchy about this amount of screentime. She doesn't have any consoles or a tablet of her own, which I believe would be considered unusual.

This is a very.difficult one! Each of my two dds own a 7" tablet. They use them to watch catch up and games. I ve parent control so the dont get centain images and sites. We often talk about the dangers about internets. We have open discussions about our experiences about websites and emails. Tbh 100% I find it very hard to just keep it for educational use. I do go round the house to check what they are doing especially with the tablets. How much time do they spend on screen it s hard to estimate. They are busy with after school clubs monday to friday normally so 1-2 hrs per day but more on holiday. I know iam a bad parent.

We have an hour max after school. 2 days a week, there is no TV though. It's also either TV or computer not both. Weekend - they generally watch 1-2 hours. They've switched it off early today after less than an hour. They don't have their own tablets but share an old laptop

Forgot to say - they're 8 and 5. The 5 year old watches a lot less - she's less bothered by TV time

DD (9) has my old iPad. Screen time varies massively. Some weeks nothing at all because she is so busy doing other things.

At the most about 6 hours a week I would say for a normal school week. She self regulates really, lack of use is down to her - she is always busy, making things, painting, typing on an old typewriter, reading, sewing costumes etc., etc..

We don't have a tv, she does watch Hetty Feather and things like Springwatch (latter usually with me).

Today I have got lots of work to do so after a dog walk in an hour or so she will be free range, I expect that she will watch something while doing something like painting, drawing, making a mess to begin with but will soon be outside.

No games here but we do have garage band, the Benjamin Britten app (she is musical and chess on there (dino chess is a good starter app) - oh and the 'sticker dolly dressing' app . A couple of language apps for kids which are fun.

She is actually very good at chess, makes us adults think when we play with her, a lot of that is down to the app. The BB app helped her to decide which instrument to play and she actually used the language she had learnt in Italy this year so quite a positive experience.

You will get tons of different views though . I am fairly relaxed about it these days (wasn't in the beginning when I thought she might just use it constantly).

No computer during the week and 30 mins per day at weekends (sometimes extended).

TV on weekend mornings but hardly any during the week, but for a family movie night sometimes.

No tablets in the house. No smartphones for the kids.

Virgin Media Family filter works well but we try not to leave them unattended with the Internet.

Apple computers have built in parental controls for kids logins, but its buried away in the settings.

Email is via KidsEmail.org so I can monitor and approve.

Forgot to say my dds are 9 and 12 y o. My tv s broken so not sure to replace it or not. Not sure if i can live with out tv.

time, we haven't had a tv for 20 odd years. Wasn't a massive decision. When I left student accommodation I didn't bother buying one, didn't feel like I was missing anything and never ever bothered. When I met DH he had moved from abroad and didn't have one either.

DD is non the worse for it, finds TV at other people's houses frustrating because she can't choose what she wants to watch like she can on iplayer .

We have film nights watching DVDs on our 22" screen mac desktop. Have toyed with the idea of a projector but haven't bothered to date.

I was talk about projector on another thread recently. But i and dds miss the news and documentary stuff. I wouldnt know when these sorts of progrommes are or going to be on without the tv.

You can watch most things on catch up time, although I don't watch the news, DD watches the CBBC news thing, I listen to R4 for news.

Lav, do you pay for tv licence?

Nope, we don't watch live programmes - gather that might change but have no problem with paying what I have to at all.

iplayer probably no more than 10 hours a month for DD, very occasionally for me/DH.

I think there will be a humungous selection bias on this thread!

I have just negotiated 4 x 30 mins a week ipad over the hols with my 6 and 8 year old each, but I think that is on the mean side. DS would never self-regulate and was one of those kids who had to be turfed off the computer in nursery and YR, so we have always limited it at home.

We have no TV before lunch but we're fairly relaxed about it after that. An hour-ish most days, more if we are staying in (which is all too rare) or watch a film etc. I let it run on if it's Horrible Histories or Deadly 60, but I step in if they are re-watching old episodes of Ninja Warrior.

We have a no electronics before lunch rule.

Otherwise DD2 gets quite a lot, (especially in the last 6 months while DD1 was preparing for GCSEs). So maybe a DVD, plus and hour or more of other TV.

But we also always do something active during the day such as visiting somewhere, going swimming or whatever. She also does some reading / writing / maths most days in the holidays too.

We have no screens (of any sort) after 10am, until 5.30pm at which point screen time is ok. It usually ends up being less than that as they will choose to do other stuff in the mornings, including sleep in, and the evening is punctuated with supper, bath etc.

dds are 8 and 11.

Ah - that's holiday screen rules, btw!

School terms are considerably less (none in the mornings, and about 1.5 hours in the evening max), and we're also planning total no-screen days at least once a week starting next term [evil grin]

My DC are 5, 7 and 9. We don't have a limit on screen time, but they all do lots of after school activities so that naturally limits the available time.

We have a laptop and an iPad which are shared between the whole family, so that is also a natural limit. No playstation, wii, xbox etc.

However many minutes the dc spends reading, music practice or music theory study in a day earns equivalent screen time.

Typically da1 will spend up to 90 mins on screens and ds2 about 30 as a result

I have an hour a day,ds or laptop...Tv depends..We have watched a lot of TV today as it is raining all day so watched a film and just watching an recorded episode of the cube now and we are having a pj day..No TV yesterday..

My Ds has also read, baked buscuits, done some work for a cub badge.

I have to say if I didn't put limits he would sit watching TV or on laptop all day long

I like your idea howtotrain however..My DS is a bookworm so wouldn't work here.. I need him out in the real world.

No computer time as I just have a laptop for work and unless it's homework research or Bitesize then it's not used. During the holidays it's probably between 1-2 hours of TV. We are out a lot and they do a sports camp which has them out between 10 - 3pm.

I think people get too stressed out over nothing about screen time. I have dt's who are 7. They will probably spend an hour a day on the iPad and usually watch a film before bed so maybe 1 1/2 to 2 hours watching TV. Today they may watch more as it's chucking it down here. They are not brain dead zombies from having too much screen time, both are very high achievers at school, both have other interests and will spend time playing/drawing/writing. I enjoy watching TV to relax - so do they, nothing wrong with it that I can see.

school days we don't impose a limit but they are self regulated by having to go to school/homework/extra curricular activities anyway.

On weekends/holidays they are generally allowed to play first thing (until we get up) and the period just before/after dinner time. DS would play all day if we didn't physically stop him. We are currently negotiating an awkward stage where DS has his first smartphone so having to differentiate between him wanting to text/email friends and sit on it all day just "playing".

Thats fine if they will self limit sock..My DS won't...I did an experiment the other week.. He watched TV for 4 hours not moving..channel hoping in the end because he was bored of watching TV but didn't move.

I don't have a strict TV time however, I do have to set limits as he won't..We did have a chat after about what else he could of done, how he gets more control when he can self limit.

He isn't a child who can't entertain himself but does get drawn in..The hour limit on DS or laptop simply makes my life easier..If we were on a long journey the time would be different.