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Toddlers: 24 Months+
ladylisalt
member
technology and how much?
ladylisalt
member
Just curious how mom's manage technology time. By that I mean, iPad, phone,laptop, any other device your toddler might use. My son never had a lot of interest in these things so I didn't have to worry about it too much. Now that he is 2.7 he loves nursery rhymes and some other videos. Sometimes its nice to let him sit and watch and I can get some things done and I don't feel too guilty. Of course I think he would stay on it longer or more frequent if I let him. I am 100% not here to judge or criticize, just wondering average time your toddler spends on a device in a sitting or frequency in a day. Just want to be realistic in whats a good balance. I do realize I am the parent and make the decisions but love "real mom advice and experiences".
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Re: technology and how much?
Device-wise, we don't let him play with phones. Mostly because I don't want him to think they're toys. And I don't want to have to worry about them getting thrown about or tossed in a bath or toilet. And he doesn't use the laptop at all - except for Skyping grandma on the weekend. We have a 1st gen ipad that I load apps on specifically for him, but he's hit or miss with those. He'll go through a phase where he wants to play "lion train" every day, and then he'll go weeks without wanting to play at all. At this age (almost 2.5) I don't really limit his usage, but I also don't need to as he doesn't really want to do much of anything for long periods at a time.
My H and I are tech junkies, so he gets exposed to a lot. He's interested because we're interested, and I'm not interested in hiding something from him that is going to be such an integral part of his future. We mostly save videos for the actual TV and long car trips, so he spends most of his tablet time reading books and playing educational apps.
Sometimes we'll let him play with our phones when we're out at a restaurant, after he's finished eating and exhausted his other activities (coloring, cars, paper books).
Tl;dr. We don't have a set time limit, more situationally dependent on what we're doing as a family that day. Sometimes there's no tech time, other times like when he's sick, he gets several hours.
DS1 - 7/2011, DD 12/2012, DS2 - 4/2014, MMC - 12/2015
I would say that both girls average less than an 1 hour of screen time a day during the week and a bit more on weekends.
We don't let him play on our phones except to watch you tube videos (disney singalongs mainly).
We got him a Kindle Fire for Christmas and we play a variety of games together. He likes the Frozen puzzles and a Scooby Doo sticker app. He would only play those if I didn't get involved and make him play some of the educational games first.
He'll get in a kick of playing on the kindle for 30 minutes a day for a week and then will go 2-3 without even thinking about the Kindle.
PG#1 - 3rd cycle BFP. Team Green. HELLP syndrome @ 34 weeks.
Later diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, possible link to HELLP.
PG#2 M/C 3/14 - Surprise BFP 2/13. Beta's doubled every 52 hours from 3w5d-5w5d
Viable pregnancy scan at 5w5d; 2nd u/s showed 2 days of growth in 7 but a HB of 120
3rd u/s on 3/10/14 had no HB and baby had only grown 7 days over 14
D&C 3/17/14 - complications - DX Retroflexed uterus, multiple tears to cervix
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DD is almost 3. She gets some media time every day. We let her play pre-school games on the iPad. Most of them are learning games with numbers, letters, etc. so I am okay with that.
She also loves nursery rhymes and songs on video and we do those every night before bedtime. I'm fine with that too. We also let her watch Dora or a show of her choice before bed and on weekends probably a few shows.
I want to expose her to technology so she is comfortable with it by the time she gets to kindergarten. There are days when I am exhausted and DH is traveling and I keep the TV on for a while in the evening. I do feel guilty about that, but luckily it only happens once in a while.
DD had no interest in TV or electronics until about 2, so we didn't watch or use any until she was interested.
Re: Iphone -- i let her use it for like the critical minutes before heading to DC (around 5-10 mins), and she usually watches/uses the dinosaur puzzle apps that i downloaded for her.
Re: the laptop, she watches youtube during friday night and saturday morning. About 30 mins to an hour while im cleaning up and she is eating bkfast. She loves peppa Pig videos, Frozen or some play doh demo.
I let her watch Sesame Street a couple of times a week if she asks or some cartoons while I'm making dinner so she is not underfoot in the (very, very small) kitchen.
But, DH & I are not big TV watchers at all and are making a conscious effort to keep our own screen time to a minimum.
Good question and I really have no exact time on it. My little one is 2 and my older one is 5. During week my little one is with my babysitter and I have no set limit. My babysitter doesnt like sitting at home so they are out most of the morning, then it is nap time. So she probably watches TV for 30-45 minutes in the AM. Late afternoon sometimes they watch TV, sometimes ipad, sometimes computer. No 2 days are the same, and it depends on weather, and how busy they are. My 5 year old is gone in K from 8-3:45 or 8-5 depending on day, so she usually watches TV or plays on computer for an hour or so when she gets home.
Some weekends they have hours of screentime- TV, computer, etc. Some weekends it is much much less.
They are super active kids but harder in the winter to find tons of physical indoor activities. We also read books tons, arts and crafts, make believe, hide and seek, etc.
My kids are awake between 11-13 hours a day, so there is a lot going on.
If I feel like they are getting too much which happens sometimes on weekend, we shut everything off. They tend to be much more creative on finding things to do when it is not an option.
I try and balance it, but with my older one, it is just not a reality in my house. I like TV/movies and computer, and as long as she does everything else, I am not worried.
For example, we watched Mary Poppins for an hour and a half last night because my mom is taking them to a local play and I want them to know the songs before they go
I dont necessarily think that at all. The reality is our world has tons of technology, and kids are using them in schools at any early age. Not all technology or screen time is bad for kids- in fact, there is tons of education in a lot of it- I love Sesame Street and watched as a kid.
I don't believe in extremes- "not allowed' to use a computer, not allowed to eat sweets, to drink juice, etc etc.
Aurora mentioned that they are limiting the amount of technology. I say this bc I am a teacher and although technology is all around us, including schools and the workplace, I also see the daily downfalls of it too,especially around overuse. I know this topic could open up into a huge debate,which I am not thinking that's where you were going with your comment, but I did want to give credit to a parent that I thought was making a good conscious effort to monitor. I agree, you cannot limit everything from your kids but I do feel when they are this age it is good to set limits bc someday it will be much more challenging to do so.