FFFC: TV edition

shakinros · January 2015

DH and I have an ongoing disagreement about how much TV is ok for our 2.5yo to watch in a day. He is more more lenient on screen time than I. I need some real comparison stats on TV time, so be honest: how much TV do your kids watch?

I'll go first. DD sees 60-90 minutes of TV per weekday. One 30min episode in the morning with me. 1-2 episodes with H in the evening depending on his energy level, her whinyness, and what time they get home. I don't get home until later. I'm ok with 60 mins per day. I think 90 mins is too much.

Weekends are awful and I share responsibility for that. 2hrs is the norm (in 30min chunks throughout the day). If it's raining, 2.5hrs would not be unusual.

jasminelorraine20 · January 2015

During a weekday DS watches 15 minutes or less of TV. Usually when we get home he spends a good amount of time FaceTiming his grandparents on the iPad, we'll play, do puzzles and word games, and when I cook he pretends to cook on his play kitchen. There's usually little to no time to watch tv. On the weekends, I'm big on taking him out somewhere- but on the rare occasions when we spend weekends at home- at most an hour and a half when we watch a movie together at night.

MommyAtty · January 2015

Our television is always on, and 2.5 yo DD sort of watches it in spurts, so I can't really quantify. She loves to watch episodes on Amazon Prime on my iPad, and on weekends, we have a 3 episode limit generally. Because they have no commercials, that ends up being somewhere around an hour. So with her 5-10 minute television watching, she's probably close to 2 hrs. I really don't care that much (not nearly as much as I thought I would) because she loves educational shows, doesn't seem that enamoured with it, and really prefers to play, draw, read, run around, go outside, dance, etc. if she ever really got zombified, I would rein it in. Interesting to me, she has a friend who is almost never allowed to watch tv at all. He doesn't know a lot of things DD picked up watching educational shows (shapes beyond circles and squares, counting backwards, exotic animals) and when they do let him near a tv, he is absolutely transfixed. Like, doesn't blink and practically drools on himself.

2chatter · January 2015

I have three kids. The issue in our house is they all get up at different times.

DS at 5:30 AM and the girls later, but never together. So the struggle is DS exhausts his TV time but what am I going to do? Lock him out of the playroom or living room? So he ends up watching HOURS on weekends.

So now, I have gotten to the point where the TV is just off and DH is the only one to turn it on. It's not on after DS gets home from DC (unless we watch a "family show" - like earlier this week we watched part of Inside Lego together because dinner was salad and I had everything prechopped/cooked).

Never turning it on in the evening removed the battle about turning it OFF.

WBMom · January 2015

Weekdays my older kids get to watch a 30 min show at night if certain things have been done (dinner, dishes, homework, prep for next day, get ready for bed). My youngest gets to watch a 30 min show either way. On weekend mornings I am very lax. They veg in front of the tv, DH and I read the paper, have coffee, etc. We do then have it be turned off then for the rest of the day unless we watch a movie at night. That time could really be 2-3 hrs then on a Sat or Sunday.

pb&fluff · January 2015

DS watches about 30 min in the morning on a weekday, and maybe 1.5 hours in the evening. I need him to be able to be entertained while I get things ready for work and get dinner ready.

I'm really bad about weekend TV. But he doesn't watch it the entire time. He mostly plays but it's on all day.

Leap08 · January 2015

Weekdays: 60 minutes on average.
Weekends: 2-3 hours. They usually watch some when they get up and sometimes we'll do movie night on the weekend.

aglenn · January 2015

For us it's sporadic and some days none, some days a lot. Both kids are high energy and while they do love some TV, the issue is that once it gets turned off they kind of go nuts with pent-up energy so we pay the price. On the other hand on a weekend afternoon when we've been out of the house and doing things all morning, sometimes a little TV can help them calm down for a little bit and give us a break. So we don't really have a set time and it's not necessarily part of the daily routine, but we just kind of try to balance it. We probably watch less TV than average, but that's not from some kind of principle-based rule but more about the need to get the kids out of the house and doing something so they don't drive us insane when it's turned off.

pb&fluff · January 2015

Also, I will admit, I don't feel bad letting him watch tv after daycare. He does so much all day so a little time to not do anything is okay by me.

vvvvvfee · January 2015

on weekdays, DS watches maybe 20 minutes of tv. DH will put him in front of an episode (or maybe 2) of daniel tiger after he gets home so he can make calls for work or catch up on chores. on weekends, probably more- maybe an hour or so? again, while we try to get other things done. basically we're using tv as a babysitter.

sometimes we'll have the tv on in the background in the evenings while we play with DS, or we might watch a family movie together. there are definitely days where he watches waaaay more tv-- like if one of us is sick and the other one has to do all the chores, etc., DS might end up watching a couple of hours of tv over the course of the day. there have been maaaany weekend days over the past 6 weeks or so when i was flattened with nausea and exhaustion and just collapsed in front of the tv myself, so DS ended up watching with me (not kid shows, but innocuous adult stuff).

long story short, i wouldn't feel guilty about it if your kid gets lots of other stimulation. and kids in f/t daycare get plenty of other stimulation and activity during the day. we also read lots of books with DS, do crafts, cook together, etc. so maybe sometimes he watches a little more tv than is ideal, but i'm not too worried about it because he gets lots of other enrichment.

welly01 · January 2015

It varies during the week. Sometimes none, sometimes an hour. But on the weekends, its been getting really bad. He's been waking up at 4:30 and won't go back to sleep. We're not usually functional until 7, so that's 2 1/2 hours of TV right there. If its raining outside, the TV might be on most of the day. We've tried to cut down as much as possible, but seriously, what are you supposed to do with a 2 year old at 5 a.m. in the morning?!

shakinros · January 2015

@welly01‌ ugh I'm so sorry. We had a few months when DD was 1.5 where that happened. It's how we started watching Daniel Tiger in the first place! By 6am I couldn't take it any more and the TV went on... She got way more morning TV then cause I was already exhausted.

I hope he grows out of the early wake ups soon.

mae0111 · January 2015

In the winter, it's a lot more than in the summer.

Both watch when they get up and I'm getting ready for work/getting breakfast.

DD1 gets one 30 min show in the afternoon.

DD1 and DD2 sometimes get a show in the evening - so 30 mins each to pick a show.

Weekends tend to be a bit more, especially now that it's 20 degrees.

But I kind of don't care. They're watching really good shows - Sesame Street, Berenstain Bears, curious george, Cat in the Hat, Peep and the Big Wide World. DD1 learns a ton. She just learned to read, so I'm hoping that there's a novelty in that (but not so far) and that she stops with the constant TV requests.

ss+el · January 2015

I have one 6yr old DS. We've never set limits. He had zero interest in the TV until he was at least 2, possibly closer to 3. He would watch 15 minutes here and there. Now, some nights he'll have Food Network on half the evening, but hardly ever looks at it, so I don't worry about it. There is very little that will glue him to the TV, thank goodness.

skibunny59 · January 2015

DD used to only get one half hour show each day while she was at my mom's. (My mom is our childcare) She is usually with the inlaws one day a week and on those days she watches more.

We used to do no tv in our house at all but DH started watching a 1/2 hour show with her on weekend mornings.

Now that I'm home on ML I still do the 1/2 hour in the morning and I will occasionally do an additional show if it's a rainy day or too cold to take her and the baby out or if I just need a break. Being home with 2 kids is freakin hard. We also do a 1/2 hour show on bath nights because it's the only way she will sit still for me to comb her hair.

So I would say 1/2 hour on a good day on non bath nights. 1 hour to 1 1/2 hour on a bad day or on bath nights. I don't like to do more than 1 1/2 hour in a day.

bumpuser10331514 · January 2015

I don't keep track. When I have things I need to do, I turn it on. When DS is tired but not ready to nap, I turn it on (and get some snuggles while we sit together). If I need a break, I turn it on. I turn it off intermittently through out the day when I think DS has been watching it for awhile, but that's in part bc it takes about as much energy as an air conditioner to run.

Here's my UO: I think there's a lot of fear-mongering related to TV. Common sense says that a lot of TV is bad and TV as an exclusive source of stimulation is bad, but the internet and TV (ironically) say that even a moderate amount retards our children's development. I'm not buying it.

traveltheworld · January 2015

DS gets one episode (so 30 minutes max) on each of the weekend days. He usually does not watch anything during the week. However, we are incredibly lucky in that we have a lot of family and outside help so DH and I spend pretty much all of our free time hanging out with DS. If we had to do all the household chores and errands that most families need to do, I'm sure DS would watch a lot more tv.

I think it also helps if you talk to your child about what he watches so it's more "interactive".

jlaOK · January 2015

Leap08 said:

Weekdays: 60 minutes on average.
Weekends: 2-3 hours. They usually watch some when they get up and sometimes we'll do movie night on the weekend.

This. In the spring/summer it is a lot less. During those times we spend most of out evenings outside.

dashofreality · January 2015

I used to be good with only 1 Disney jr show a day. But uh not so much anymore. Now I have 2 kids that love tv and both have opinions. I guess I could have them rotate days, but I don't. Each kid picks something to watch before bed. So this is normally 1 Doc episode and then Thomas, but Thomas is an hour - I usually try and cut it off after about 20ish minutes, but sometimes I am doing the dishes or surfing the internet and forget.

I also have recently had to start bribing my kids up from naps with TV. Horrible I know, but my 4 year old has started taking naps again and won't get up. And if I let her sleep she will be up until after 10pm. I'm hoping this is a short phase.

TL;DR - My kids are probably watching 40 - an hour a day + 1 movie every 2 weeks or so + maybe another 20 minutes as needed if I have to get something done/crazy cold/raining. Justifications - we don't leave the TV on at other times (found they won't play even if it is the news) and I work PT so they are home with me a lot.

itsmevkb · January 2015

Honestly, I don't really keep track. I rarely put a show on for them but know that my husband does, and sometimes frequently in order to try and get work done himself. Before bed there are often nights I'll let them use the Kindle to watch an episode of Team Umizoomi or some other kid show.

I guess I just don't have huge issues with it so long as I know that's not the only activity they do.

CarrieB. · January 2015

I agree that there is a lot of fear mongering about how much tv is bad for you. My coworker and I talk about this because her kids are at an in home care with a relative and my kids are home with DH and we both know our kids get way more tv than kids who go to a center.

My DH jokes that he was raised by tv and he even has a somewhat broadcaster type voice, so who knows... but tv is probably not that bad. Usually my kids are doing something else or playing something while its on anyway. We don't track how much screen time they get. I just think that its important to limit screen time in the evening before bed because it gets them too wound up to sleep.

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