Y'all are my people, lol! We don't have limits, the TV is almost always on. DS also gets his tablet after he wakes up from nap to extend quiet time (I need the break!) and he is definitely a play while the TV is on in the background kind of kid, most likely because when he was little I always had music playing while he and I played on the floor (still do sometimes in the summer or on weekends when I just can't watch one more minute of Blippi).
beerlover, we used to be dinner in front of the TV people until DS started eating with us, and we stopped only because he's a messy eater. I fully expect to go back to dinner in the living room when he's consistently cleaner while eating.
DD (5) goes to preschool in the afternoons, so we do allow about 40 minutes (or 2 kid show episodes) of TV in the morning while my H showers and gets ready and I check my work emails. We might watch a movie on weekends as well.
She did not have other types of screen time (we don't have an iPad and she's not allowed on our laptops or phones) until recently. She got a VTech digital camera for Christmas and has just discovered the games on it. We only let her play a few minutes at a time and then redirect to something else. She can take pictures and videos as much as she wants though.
Add to this response the huge disclaimer that I am lucky to have an H who works part time and can do his work in the evenings, so we did not need to rely on screen time through the pandemic. I'm 💯 sure that if we'd both been working full time during regular business hours, she'd have been watching a LOT more TV.
At DS2’s 2.5y well check last month his pedi said he shouldn’t have “really any screen time at all” and if I didn’t like the practice and proximity to our house so much I legit might have looked for a different doc.
Pre-pandemic screen was 100x more regulated, but now, do what needs to be done.
Tv is less of an issue than the tablet. So I will cut that off pretty quick when the attitude comes out. I also give her x minutes and have Alexa set a timer so she knows 5 mins is really 5 mins.
We do allow an hour for bedtime on school nights, so she’s ending the night with reading, not a screen.
Our girls are 8 and 12. They both become monsters when they’re on screens too much, so we limit them to 2-3 hours of non-school screen time a day (which is still probably too much, but... 🤷♀️).
They get to go on screens after they’ve completed three things: 1/2 hour outside; finish their remote learning; and help me around the house for one hour. They get 1-2 hours in the afternoon, depending on how strict I’m feeling that day and what exactly they’re doing, and then we all watch one hour together as a family at night.
My twin boys (3.5) got their own Fire tablets for Christmas. They get one hour total per day should they choose to use it, and it shuts off when their time is up. If I need them to put it down, I can turn them off from my phone. Sometimes they use their time up all at once, sometimes they break it up, sometimes they don’t use them at all. They don’t have time for tv in the evenings or before we take them to dayhome, but they watch about 30 mins or so in the mornings two days a week before preschool. They get more on weekends, as we usually do a movie night. I dunno, I feel like we have an ok balance.
They’re in the process of dropping their nap 😭 so on weekends our plan is to put them in their room for quiet time with their tablets, and that’s the only time they’ll get it. We all need the break from each other lol
My kids go to school 2 days a week, no screen time on in-person school days. Virtual school days they get an hour a day sometime during the day. Weekends vary, if we have stuff going on then none, but if we're hanging out at home (more often than not these days) they get an hour or two. They do also Zoom with my mom and she reads to them for hours... I do not include this in screen time. They know better than to beg for it because they'll lose it, and they know they're not allowed to do any screens unless we specifically allowed it.
I don't really limit screen time in terms of how long they are on it because all three of my kids are pretty good about watching TV for a bit and then turning it off and moving on to something else.
I do have rules around when we can do screen time, though, and most of this is prompted by the fact that they are on month 10 of school at home, so we need some boundaries. Basically, no TV or Switch before school or after dinner on school days. Simple enough to follow and reasonable. If anyone seems to be zoned out too long, I will ask them to turn it off and move on, but that is usually just my son on the Switch every now and then if he gets into a game. It's usually a show or two here and there for all of them in the afternoons.
This is really helpful to read but I have some follow up questions for those who do not allow screen time before school/daycare jordylee, hbomdiggity and others
S is 3.5 and very strong willed and prone to tantrums. I have been allowing him to watch even 10 minutes of TV in the morning on my computer while I quickly get dressed and out the door and when we turn it off it leads to tantrums. Today was day 1 of no TV before school and again, meltdown pursued. He was happily playing with his toys not even asking for screen time and then when he realized we needed to leave he LOST HIS DAMN MIND because "I did not get tv!!!!" He also cries and complains that he does not like school because he does not get to watch TV there. This is another epic battle we are dealing with (see other thread on this board..., lol)
How did you get them to wean from TV in the morning? How long did it take?
This is really helpful to read but I have some follow up questions for those who do not allow screen time before school/daycare jordylee , hbomdiggity and others
S is 3.5 and very strong willed and prone to tantrums. I have been allowing him to watch even 10 minutes of TV in the morning on my computer while I quickly get dressed and out the door and when we turn it off it leads to tantrums. Today was day 1 of no TV before school and again, meltdown pursued. He was happily playing with his toys not even asking for screen time and then when he realized we needed to leave he LOST HIS DAMN MIND because "I did not get tv!!!!" He also cries and complains that he does not like school because he does not get to watch TV there. This is another epic battle we are dealing with (see other thread on this board..., lol)
How did you get them to wean from TV in the morning? How long did it take?
We didn't implement the no TV before school until about 6 months ago, when it became clear that my youngest (4yo at the time) wasn't getting his other stuff done before being able to watch. My 7yo is an early riser, but he was really good about getting dressed/brushing teeth/grabbing breakfast before asking if he could turn a show on. I always said yes to him. But then his younger brother would wake up and the tv would already be on, so he'd wander out into the living room and watch without doing all of the other necessary stuff earlier.
We worked on him getting ready before he was allowed to watch and he did ok with that, but then when it was time for us to actually leave he would have a problem if we were shutting the tv off when it was the middle of the show. He'd cry and beg to stay until the end of the show, so that's when we ultimately decided no tv at all in the AM. Now it's just the rule and it's ok most of the time. Though I will admit...I got to sleep longer when they were allowed to watch. They're freaking LOUD without tv. Haha.
My son’s behavior is very much affected by screen time. He gets to watch one show after all of his learning is done and we’ve had outdoor time. Otherwise nothing during the week. Weekends he will watch a show while we have coffee in the morning and most evenings we do a family movie since we’ve been home every weekend for a year lol. We don’t do iPad games, but he is allowed to FaceTime with grandparents (usually 1-2 times a week). I agree with the advice to use screen time as a tool for you to do what you need to do. On weekends we have “family work time” and he can either help us with stuff or play solo. Also, if you guys don’t do audiobooks I highly recommend as a screen time replacement. My son listens for 1-2 hours a day and has even done 4 hours straight before. He listens on CDs in his room (mostly from the library). It’s a great alternative to screen time.
This is really helpful to read but I have some follow up questions for those who do not allow screen time before school/daycare jordylee, hbomdiggity and others
S is 3.5 and very strong willed and prone to tantrums. I have been allowing him to watch even 10 minutes of TV in the morning on my computer while I quickly get dressed and out the door and when we turn it off it leads to tantrums. Today was day 1 of no TV before school and again, meltdown pursued. He was happily playing with his toys not even asking for screen time and then when he realized we needed to leave he LOST HIS DAMN MIND because "I did not get tv!!!!" He also cries and complains that he does not like school because he does not get to watch TV there. This is another epic battle we are dealing with (see other thread on this board..., lol)
How did you get them to wean from TV in the morning? How long did it take?
We never did before school but we did a solid month or two of no screen time when he was getting really affected by it. Then we brought it back at set times. We recently were doing one show in the am and it made transition to school harder so we stopped all morning TV. After a couple of weeks we went to morning TV only on weekends.
This is really helpful to read but I have some follow up questions for those who do not allow screen time before school/daycare jordylee, hbomdiggity and others
S is 3.5 and very strong willed and prone to tantrums. I have been allowing him to watch even 10 minutes of TV in the morning on my computer while I quickly get dressed and out the door and when we turn it off it leads to tantrums. Today was day 1 of no TV before school and again, meltdown pursued. He was happily playing with his toys not even asking for screen time and then when he realized we needed to leave he LOST HIS DAMN MIND because "I did not get tv!!!!" He also cries and complains that he does not like school because he does not get to watch TV there. This is another epic battle we are dealing with (see other thread on this board..., lol)
How did you get them to wean from TV in the morning? How long did it take?
We never had morning TV as part of our routine, it was more occasional and we noticed it directly corresponded to behavior problems so we cut it pretty quick. We do allow DD to play independently for 30 mins before we get up (she’s an early bird so she can play when the yellow light in her room turns on, them come get us when the green light is on).
We just told DD that we are only doing TV on Saturday and Sunday because it’s a treat. There was pushback at first, but now she gets super excited and calls Saturday “movie day”. I really think that would help you guys out in the morning. If S is anything like T, screens turn her into a monster if we need her to be productive.