Great news for parents not afraid of technology

ElRuby

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2015/09/30/the-american-academy-of-pediatrics-just-changed-their-guidelines-on-kids-and-screen-time/

Always figured this would happen because screen time is not the devil when used properly. Thoughts?

KarasTwin

This is interesting. I don't want LO to be exposed to massive amounts of tv, etc. I don't mind if he watches some when he's older, and I completely agree it's part of society, but I don't like the idea of a screen being a babysitter. DH has our tv on constantly and is on his phone at the same time. His parents tv is always on. What scares me is that he'll wind up like those 12 year olds you see out to eat and they can't make it through a meal without their iPad and overpriced headphones.

ChardeeMacDennis

Rather than limiting the amount of screen time they get, we limit when they can watch it. There are three TV days every week (Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday) and on those days they can watch TV after they wake up, after nap, and before bed. This keeps them from wanting to watch tv all the time and seems more like what adults do. We don't time ourselves, we just choose appropriate times to use screens.

virginiaunicorn11

I've been pretty hard nosed about not letting LO look at screens. I still am going to try to limit it before he's two (recognizing one is probably more realistic), but reading this yesterday helped me chill out a bit.

Last night LO watched 10 minutes of a baseball game with my parents when we arrived. Two days ago that would have bothered me, but now I'm saner. I definitely do not think TV is the devil. I just have two nieces who are like what @KarasTwin describes, and I do NOT want LO to be like that. So I go overboard in the other direction.

My mom said this morning, "You're going to make this sweet boy a technological IDIOT." Lol, fair point, I suppose

henrytviii

My kids will be technological idiots until they are 4 or 5. Then I'll catch them up. TV and computer time is very limited at our house. We don't have a TV and my 3 year old watched dinosaur train or Franklin on YouTube for 30 minutes once or twice a week, only when we are desperate for a break. Usually he draws, plays toys or "reads" to himself while we tend to his brother or chores. The computer or phones are used for looking at family photos or videos and Skype. I also show him how I look things up, like when the pool is open etc. Otherwise technology tends to be a huge negative influence whether he is using it or i am, it causes problems for us. I don't let him see me on my phone. I do see my older nephews doing amazing creative things on the iPad. Superhero effects and stop motion animation. They are 6 and 8. I will start that in another year or two.

klkonwi

Am I the only bad mom who let's my kiddo watch it with me sometimes?!
Oops. At this age he is looking at the movement and colors. He doesn't know that he's watching tv. He's not a junkie yet lol

aj1327

klkonwi said:

Am I the only bad mom who let's my kiddo watch it with me sometimes?!
Oops. At this age he is looking at the movement and colors. He doesn't know that he's watching tv. He's not a junkie yet lol

Guilty even though I swore I wouldn't. I have got to stay up with Nashville, so if he has to watch it with me, so be it. Haha.

I don't want him watching TV constantly or being "plugged in." I truly think it's all about balance..

7425cait

@klkonwi I totally agree! DD is just into the colors and motion. I don't think there's anything wrong with a little TV break. DH and I agree with @KarasTwin that there will be no technology at dinner, but honestly, sometimes she'll sit on my lap while I watch the boob tube.

dancegurl1118

BRING ON THE SCREENS. Yeah I don't really care. Not using it as a babysitter but...what, I'm going to stop her from craning her neck to look at the TV? We read plenty of books and sing plenty of songs, I really don't think I will even worry about "screen time".

virginiaunicorn11

I gave my niece my old iPhone when she was 4 and created a monster, so I'm overcompensating. (Her parents use it as a babysitter.)

But I don't think technology is bad full stop, and am not judging or saying it's bad at all

mindaa

This is good news, thanks for posting. Nice to have one less thing to battle the "mom-guilt" for. 

addingon

I want my kids to have practical boundaries, but I don't want to make rules, per se. No electronics at dinner would be my only rule - I don't care if we're at home or out. That was my family's time to really talk and catch up and that's important to me. I think TV will somewhat limit itself once LO is in school because from what I read on my area's mom FB group they give kids so much dang homework these days, they won't be watching hours of TV each night. Until then, she can watch the Real Housewives with her cool mom!

henrytviii

I feel like my post may have seemed judgy. Not at all. I am not against some screen time, MY kid just can't handle it and it makes things worse for us. So we've learned to keep him away from it. When we are at other peoples houses he sees TV and video games, he watches his cousins play games or create movies on the iPad. I am totally cool with that. I just have to keep it out of our house or its all he wants to do. We let him watch videos of airplanes or bmx biking and suddenly he's begging for it all the time. DH and I aren't good about setting rules and sticking to them so its better to ban it entirely for now. We'll allow it later with restrictions.

ElRuby

dancegurl1118 said:

BRING ON THE SCREENS. Yeah I don't really care. Not using it as a babysitter but...what, I'm going to stop her from craning her neck to look at the TV? We read plenty of books and sing plenty of songs, I really don't think I will even worry about "screen time".

I think you and I would be awesome friends IRL.... How does one monitor what an infant watches hhahah... Although when DS was an infant (like under 3 months old even) I just couldn't bring myself to watch Sons of Anarchy until he was asleep haha

lwhrmomma

swaugh14 said:

I want my kids to have practical boundaries, but I don't want to make rules, per se. No electronics at dinner would be my only rule - I don't care if we're at home or out. That was my family's time to really talk and catch up and that's important to me. I think TV will somewhat limit itself once LO is in school because from what I read on my area's mom FB group they give kids so much dang homework these days, they won't be watching hours of TV each night. Until then, she can watch the Real Housewives with her cool mom!

Exactly!  I have the TV on pretty much all day in the background.  The news, various talk shows, Friends, Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune...I don't sit on the couch all day and stare at the tv, but while I'm playing with LO, it's on and I glance at it every so often.  LO likes looking at the screen at the colors--he LOVES watching the wheel spin on Wheel of Fortune!  I will also put Sesame Street on occasionally, which he loves--and I actually like watching it too.  I don't use it as a babysitter, and never will...I look forward to the day when we can sit down together and watch a sitcom or a Phillies game together as a family.  I agree with everyone else--absolutely no phones or iPads at the dinner table.  It drives me nuts to see families out to dinner where they throw an iPad at their kids to keep them quiet.  These kids need to learn how to be creative and find their own way to quietly entertain themselves...it also teaches them social skills.  The kids I see now--I fear for 10 years from now when they are adults and don't know how to interact with anyone when face to face.  A little TV is harmless...it's the other technology crap that I won't allow!

krystleshel

My LO loves watching football. She will sit with DH and watch with him. He loves to tell her about it though. Adorable.
She also loves live football.

laurendutch

My son has to drink a special elemental formula for weight gain, so he and his twin (4.5 yr old) will begin and end their day watching a show. Most of the time, it gets kept on for a while until I shut it off. I can tell you that my kids are not addicted. Usually they will watch until they finish thei bottle and then start to play. The only electronics that they get exposed to are thei leap frogs and that is for appointments or when Mom is out of ideas to entertain them my personal philosophy is everything in moderation. It's like the kid who never gets sugar and gets strung out on it at a birthday party

KarasTwin

Ya'll make valid points, I'm not completely against it, I just don't want him unable to function without an electronic device in hand. I have younger cousins with all manner of electronic equipment and when it snowed a few years ago and they couldn't charge them, it didn't even cross their minds to go play in the snow. They also couldn't be in the car for 10 minutes without needing to turn on the DVD player and that turned into a major argument because they couldn't agree what to watch.

KaLikeAWind

This is a tough one for me because I love books and also don't want to be the parent who has give my kid my phone to have a mostly hassle free meal at a restaurant. But. DH and I are total geeks, and there are many movies, cartoons, even commercials that we use as references in our lives. Y'all know about my Star Wars obsession. Y'all know that we are gamers. So, I don't want my kid to be attached to the TV, and I certainly will not be using it as a babysitter (or, I certainly hope that I will not), but on the other hand, our (DH and I) Xmas tradition has always been to go to the zoo, and then come home and watch a Star Wars marathon. We're hopeful we may be able to go to a comic-con with LO eventually. That's not going to make any sense to him unless he is super excited by anime and SciFi / fantasy movies and video games. And I want him to be excited by and interested in the characters and concepts we get a kick out of.
So I'm not quite sure how I am going to handle this yet. I'm not worried about it right now, because yes, its all just swirly colors to him. I do the same thing sometimes by putting him in his rocker and aiming it so he looks out the sliding glass door at the backyard with the trees blowing and birds flying. I do however, try to angle him away from being able to convienently just stare at it while we are playing and doing floor time (playmat time, etc). Tummy time I actually let him face that way because if it catches his attention and he keeps his head up longer because of it, then great (tummy time is still a struggle over here). I also have the TV on for background noise pretty much all the time - am national news, Price is Right, find a movie or Law & Order SVU, midday local news, find a movie or Law & Order SVU or CI, evening local and national news, find a movie... I've just described my day to you. Except that when LO is awake we are usually feeding or doing play time. I don't ever put it on something I haven't seen because I don't want my own attention pulled away from LO.
Once he is older, and I have to start watching what he sees to make sure its appropriate, I will probably compromise by doing TV hours. I'm not sure yet, tho. I don't really have a plan... I know I don't want my kid glued to the TV or Xbox, but I'm not sure how to achieve the balance. I'm just gonna wing it.

Meantime, here is a pic of LO watching the Price is Right just after a floormat time diaper change (can you blame him? All those flashing lights and "bingbingbing" noises? That's like a baby orgasm in that show)

ElRuby

LO is really into Project Runway at the moment ... But in all seriousness the zest of life is moderation and after preschool and soccer and gymnastics and play dates in the park a little TV time is a perfectly fine way to relax.... Unfortunately even on channels that limit commercials they still sneak in some products and my 4 year old will ask for "as seen on TV products".... Total consumer...but he was able to convince his aunt he desperately needed a hover ball and glo bubble lol

lovethatcolosun

I will admit that I used technology as a source to keep DS entertained during the first couple months of lo's life. She is a very frequent eater and chasing DS around constantly with a baby who wanted to eat was not easy. It's not all bad, because he was able to learn his ABC's and play games that reinforced all we've been teaching him, like shapes, colors, numbers etc. I also admit that I will let him watch PBS when I'm trying to get his sister down for a nap, which is technically babysitting him for short periods of time. He's a well rounded kid and can disconnect in the middle of a show or game to go play with trucks, Legos, or whatever. He loves spending time outside and playing on his scooter. I have only slight mom guilt over screen time. We live in a digital age and it does make life easy sometimes, but he will not be a TV zombie if I have any say in it.

KaLikeAWind

^^ see, and I think PBS is a whole other thing than Spongebob, so there is a quality over quantity argument, too. An hour of PBS while I clean is totally different than than an hour of Cartoon Network. Of course I watched a lot PBS. Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, Schoolhouse Rock.

ElRuby

mellymar said:

^^ see, and I think PBS is a whole other thing than Spongebob, so there is a quality over quantity argument, too. An hour of PBS while I clean is totally different than than an hour of Cartoon Network. Of course I watched a lot PBS. Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, Schoolhouse Rock.

Funny story about SpongeBob.... I told DS that it is not appropriate for him to watch and he will literally run out of a room if it comes on and will ask other adults to please turn it off if he sees it haha.... We are fans of the Nick Jr shows... And he learned a bit of Spanish from Dora and math skills from Team Umizoomi.

KaLikeAWind

ElRuby said:

mellymar said:

^^ see, and I think PBS is a whole other thing than Spongebob, so there is a quality over quantity argument, too. An hour of PBS while I clean is totally different than than an hour of Cartoon Network. Of course I watched a lot PBS. Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, Schoolhouse Rock.

Funny story about SpongeBob.... I told DS that it is not appropriate for him to watch and he will literally run out of a room if it comes on and will ask other adults to please turn it off if he sees it haha.... We are fans of the Nick Jr shows... And he learned a bit of Spanish from Dora and math skills from Team Umizoomi.

I'll admit that I have never seen a Spongebob episode, so I probably should not have used that as an example. For all I know they're dropping knowledge left and right, and kids who watch Spongebob are learning literal rocket science. I do know that the theme song / opening music is really really annoying, and that was the basis for my using it as an example

AlyLynn07

I myself enjoy some Team Umizoomi. Used to be the only way I could get DS1 to sit still to let me clip his nails.

ElRuby

mellymar said:

ElRuby said:

mellymar said:

^^ see, and I think PBS is a whole other thing than Spongebob, so there is a quality over quantity argument, too. An hour of PBS while I clean is totally different than than an hour of Cartoon Network. Of course I watched a lot PBS. Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, Schoolhouse Rock.

Funny story about SpongeBob.... I told DS that it is not appropriate for him to watch and he will literally run out of a room if it comes on and will ask other adults to please turn it off if he sees it haha.... We are fans of the Nick Jr shows... And he learned a bit of Spanish from Dora and math skills from Team Umizoomi.

I'll admit that I have never seen a Spongebob episode, so I probably should not have used that as an example. For all I know they're dropping knowledge left and right, and kids who watch Spongebob are learning literal rocket science. I do know that the theme song / opening music is really really annoying, and that was the basis for my using it as an example

Oh god no sponge bob is awful and is IMO not for kids... It's like an adult's cartoon.

HoosOnFirst

Right now LO doesn't know the difference between kid cartoons (Curious George and Word Girl) and adult cartoons (Rick and Morty, Archer). Thank goodness!

Which is to say, DH started her on tv when he took paternity leave and it's sticking around on the weekends for now.

In other news, Chris Parnell must be a gazillionaire...

janat1717

Remember when our moms used to watch soap operas all day long???

henrytviii

Yep, General Hospital was like my family movies growing up. Lucky was basically a 4th sibling. AND my mom graduated from Law School summa cum laude. Andplusalso I and all my siblings did very well in school. Why I am still TV paranoid? Maybe all that background TV destroyed my ability to be logical? Wonder how Luke and Laura and Sonny are doing now . . .

krystleshel

I watched "The Young and the Restless" growing up at my grandparents, but also went outside all summer too. Balance. I've shown her Baby TV when she's fussy and needing to calm down. She likes the colors and songs.

janat1717

General Hospital was my show too. Good point though, I grew up on a farm so spent a huge amount of time outside doing things.

JMott22

General Hospital is my show!!! Once DH gets home the tv pretty much goes to him and it just so happens that LO is usually napping when it's on. It's my guilty pleasure and it is so corny and really bad acting at times but I can't wait for Monday's at 2:00 after going all weekend with out my Port Charles fix. And Luke has left the show, Laura just came back and Sonny has been shot and in the hospital(he is temporarily paralyzed and is marrying Carly again, from the hospital bed)

virginiaunicorn11

janit368 said:

General Hospital was my show too. Good point though, I grew up on a farm so spent a huge amount of time outside doing things.

Ditto on the farm. We had two TV channels - NBC and PBS. And generally, we weren't allowed inside when it was light out.
"But I have to go to the bathroom!"
"Go use the woods, there's plenty of trees!"

KarasTwin

Ha, we spent summers outside at my Granny and Papa's house chasing barn kittens, but after lunch, we had to stay inside and be quiet so she could watch her "stories". It was Days of Our Lives and Another World (ended years ago).

P.S. Didn't Shemar Moore get his start on one of the soaps? He's so hot

7425cait

Mmmmm Shemar Moore. i have a thread idea.

laurendutch

Even though there's some great shows on Nick Jr, I hate the commercials. Disney Jr and PBS doesn't have as many. SpongeBob is the worst! My sisters ex GF was visiting and thought it was appropriate for my boys...now they ask to watch it all the time! Um nope, not going to happen.

I also grew up where the TV was off and we had to be outside. We never had cable and only local channels. There were even times when we had no TV at all. Nothing was worse than having MASH come on after your Saturday morning cartoons!

KaLikeAWind

My DH and I were just talking about the demise of Saturday morning cartoons. I mean, I know now we have the Disney channel and Nick toons and cartoon network and baby channel and probably a million others that I don't know about, but seriously. What happened to plain old Saturday morning cartoons? And I can't be the only one longing to watch some Roadrunner and Coyote, or any of those old school ones, vs all this new school stuff. (Gods, I'm getting old. Complaining about 'the way things used to be' in cartoons)

dalinhardt

mellymar said:

My DH and I were just talking about the demise of Saturday morning cartoons. I mean, I know now we have the Disney channel and Nick toons and cartoon network and baby channel and probably a million others that I don't know about, but seriously. What happened to plain old Saturday morning cartoons? And I can't be the only one longing to watch some Roadrunner and Coyote, or any of those old school ones, vs all this new school stuff. (Gods, I'm getting old. Complaining about 'the way things used to be' in cartoons)

DH and I were just talking about this not too long ago when we were waiting for his VA appointment and they had some garbage cartoon on in the lobby! A couple years ago we bought the looney tune volumes 1, 2, and 3. Even before LO we watched them on lazy Saturday mornings while making breakfast and it's a tradition we plan to keep. LO cranes his neck to see the TV when we occasionally have them on, especially for Coyote and Roadrunner. I think he likes the noises.
Meep meep.

Edited (spelling )

KaLikeAWind

klkonwi

I totally caught my DH watching cartoons a few months ago lol

KarasTwin

My DH records cartoons on the dvr. He has all the seasons of thundercats on DVD, old version and new. He also has ducktails and the dinosaurs on dvd. He's so excited to introduce lo to the ninja turtles. This is the reason I have to monitor tv, otherwise it'll be out of control around here. I'm living with a man child