Screen time and your toddler

daisygirl2010

Curious for some honest answers as to how much screen time your toddler gets on a "normal" day.  Not on a day when you have lots of extra activities or a day when your LO is feeling sick.  Just a "usual" day in the life... About how much screen time do you give you toddler?  TV, DVD, Computer, IPAD, Iphone, etc....

What about how much time where they are actually in front of the screen vs it just being on in the background?

Trying to find a good balance for our family and just curious what the "normal" range is. 

 

pitterpatter129

Waaaay too much.  It's embarrassing.  Like hours.  I claim "just had a baby" though.  We will start to limit more when I'm not nursing all.day.long. 

daisygirl2010

Oh yeah, I'd be using it a lot more too if I were breastfeeding a baby.  What else can you do? 

I wanted to make a Poll so that it could be anonymous and people wouldn't feel judged or like they had to defend themselves. Unfortunately,

honeybee111

TV: DH has the news on in the morning for about 1/2 an hour, but DD doesn't really watch it.  She watches 30-45 min. every evening while I make dinner, so she's out of the kitchen.

 

quidditchcapn1120

More than I like. Probably an hour or so with the babysitter through the day, half hour while I'm making dinner and another half hour while I clean up the house.

hologram87

tv is usually one half hour show in the morning and one half hour show in the afternoon.  some days it's no tv at all just depending on what else we are doing that day (errands, playdates, etc) and DD loves to watch home movies/videos so she will som

wedsept

30 minutes generally, sometimes less.  Either Mickey Mouse clubhouse or Calilou.  The TV isn't on otherwise until she goes to sleep. 

sschwege

While DD is awake the TV is on for 30 minutes a day while I watch Wheel of Fortune (I'm a nerd), sometimes she watches it sometimes she doesn't.  But she always watches her LeapPad 2 for I think like 20 minutes before she goes to bed (that's DH's dep

kcisthebombdotcom

in the morning for a half hour while i take a shower/get dressed.

a half hour during the day when i need a break to get some stuff done.

a few nights a week, we watch another half hour show when dh gets home from work while snuggled on the

clojel

I would say between 2-3 hrs a day - and that includes everything - iPad, tv, phone, leap pad, etc...   Ideally, I would like to keep it under TWO hours but since LO doesn't take naps and she wakes at 6 am....it just adds up!!!  

abs05

A lot.  She watches 3 episodes of Mickey a day, so that is just over an hour.

She only gets iPad time occassionally (less than once a month), so TV is the only screen time she gets.

brettsmama

On an average, day I'd say 2 to 3 hours of actual watching. However, the TV is almost always on at my house, sometimes just music stations, DH can't stand the quiet

orangecurls

1 to 2 hours a day. Though during football season the tv is on a lot more and my toddler watches a few minutes here and there.

erbear

My 4 year old watches 30 minutes of Dinosaur Train on weekdays and maybe 1 hour on weekends. My 2 year old is in the room, but she doesn't seem too interested yet. No ipad, computer, dvds or phones for them yet.

I work full time though. I think i

armywife7205

Max 30ish mins a day. There are many days we dont even turn the TV on. We dont have cable so that helps!

greengirl0909

We do movie night once a week. Daycare does a movie once a week also.  Maybe twice a week we watch a youtube video or 2 before bed.  Not much here. I'm afraid of it! 

NicoleDenae

Not as bad with mommy as it is with daddy! Lol Dad loves sitting on the couch with the little man and watching tv. I dont think its worth the fight, as long as he gets activity, play time, and educational time a little bit of tv with dad wont kill him. I

Angela814

Way too much. Probably 2-3 hours at this point. I blame the cold weather and being super pregnant.

ETA: Shoot. I forgot that she has a DVD player in the car that's on whenever we're driving. We started it when she hated being in the car because I

superaunt

M-F the TV is on when we get home for the day (she's in school all day, i'm at work)-- from around 4:45PM till 6:30PM. Sat & Sun it's on whenever we're home. but she's not in front of it the whole time. during the week, yes, she's pretty much in front

izziebee

The TV is on whenever we are home unless we are outside.

DS does go to daycare where there is no TV so from 7:30am until about 530pm he has zero M-F. The TV is generally on during dinner at  our house and it's usually Disney b/c I don't want

BeanNut

Zero during the week.  On the weekend, an hour on average.

Our absolute limit for any one day is 2 hours.

Leap08

pitterpatter129:

Waaaay too much.  It's embarrassing.  Like hours.  I claim "just had a baby" though.  We

JulesDiane

I am a SAHM. I *try* to limit it to 2 - 30 minute episodes, 1 - 1 hour episode, or 1 movie. Plus, the DVD in the car. I really need this time to fix dinner or put DD2 down for a nap or for the night. Sometimes it is more, but I do my best to try to limit

superned

A normal day is zero.

We have "movie night" on Fridays where we watch two 24-minute episodes of Fraggle Rock before bed.

Occasionally on the weekends I let her watch Wonder Pets on my Kindle while I take a shower (if DH is at work).  H

BelhurstBride

On average? An hour and a half. Sesame St and then Daniel Tiger. She doesn't usually sit through Sesame St (the little guy I babysit does) and comes in at the end for Elmo. She does usually sit through all of Daniel Tiger, though. 

It's usua

12bailey18

Honestly, I don't keep track. I will say the TV is always on throughout the day. Sometimes they'll sit and watch a show (usually after lunch and after bath, before bed) and sometimes they're too busy playing to notice it. Sometimes they'll watch a second

ksyknelvr73

On weekdays I would say somewhere between 30 min - 1 hour and that's usually while I am cooking dinner or right before we take him upstairs for his bath/bedtime routine.

Weekends - maybe 2-3 hours total. We really try to keep it to a minimum b

cmoats1

12bailey18:

Honestly, I don't keep track. I will say the TV is always on throughout the day. Sometimes they'll sit and watch a sh

cmoats1

cmoats1:

12bailey18

zeptattoo

Maybe an hour or two every day.  More or less depending on the weather.  He's very active, but it doesn't always work to get him to the indoor pool, etc on the weekends.  Now that the weather is getting better that time will decrease.

SuperSecretStatus

Since we don't have cable I don't really turn on the tv unless I'm playing Xbox or watching something on Hulu/Netflix.

DD watches her iPad (which includes learning games/coloring) on and off all day. Sometimes she sits and watches a full episode

Kie310

On a normal weekday about 45 minutes in the morning and 1-1.5 at night. Once it's warm out again that will drop to 30 minutes at night because he LIVES outside.

A normal weekend can vary. If I have a lot of errands about 2-3 hours a day. If no

ali26

I agree that winter is tough, so it's definitely more right now than during warmer months.  On days im not working, DD will sometimes watch 1-2 30 minute shows at home, but often when DH is home the TV is on since he watches more than I do.  

rlyttle

Hours!! I need to cut back, but it's so freaking cold & it's MARCH!! We will be outside soon & enjoying the nice weather. I figure it won't kill him. When I was 2 my parents were building their house & they tell me that watching movies was all

skio

It's not something I stress about. We get up in the mornings and have some TV/snuggle time before and during breakfast. It's on for an hour or two unless we have to run out somewhere; sometimes she's watching it, sometimes not. Then it's on in the evening

kristennd

It varies quite a bit. He does watch Sesame Street every morning but often wanders off halfway through. He gets a 30 minute post-nap show about half the time. He gets a 30-minute before bed show about half the time. (Some days he gets both. Some days n

mbgreenwalt

They get 2-5 hours a day between home and daycare.  I'm not worried about it.  It's winter in MN and we are soooo sick of craft projects and things to keep us busy in the house.  In the summer months they watch 1-2 hours a day - they are ou

st.augbride

Ds is a terrible eater (has been since birth due to pregnancy-related complications) so the only way we reliably get him to eat enough at meals is with videos on, so we watch shows on netflix or youtube during meals for him. So on weekends, that's all

fancynewbeesly

More than I like.

She usually watches about 30 minutes in the morning while I get ready for work. She usually watches Play with me Sesame--her favorite.

Then after work, when I get her about 30 minutes while I get dinner ready, etc. I know

BrittKav

It's hard to get an average, because 3-4 days a week they're at their grandma's where the TV is always on in the background and when they're home they only get a little iPhone screen time. So...maybe 30-60 minutes active watching, plus another hour of bac

PaisleyRuth

Most normal days DS has no screen time, or at most 20 mins playing on the iPad. If DH isn't home in the evening, I have DS watch a Baby Einstein video on YouTube while I put DD to bed. He won't watch real shows with conversation and plot for some reason.