When to start relaxing about no screen time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a pediatrician, my kids all watched TV for an hour or so a day starting around 18 months. Screen time of high quality programming doesn't hurt a child's development once they are running around. We started off with cowatching to help them understand what they are viewing and applying it to the world around them. As they got older we let them watch more without us, but always tried to keep it to high quality programming.

I know most pedatricions say 24 months, but I've found that to be impractical advice for most parents. Many times once the kids become mobile a parent needs a few minutes everyday to prepare dinner or whatever and need something to keep their child safe and entertained.

Really screentime only becomes a problem when it begins replacing parenting, which is a very high threshold.

Tell me more about your medical training on this issue.

Wow -- you must be pretty self-satisfied if you're disparaging a pediatrician's approach to this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In a perfect world, I would wait and introduce videos when they become something that can benefit the kid, rather than something they stare at like a moth drawn to the flame. If it was up to me, I would wait until about 3 and introduce TV, and then choosing videos with intention that the characters model courage, kindness, etc. My reasoning here is that TV is a very powerful medium, and I'd like child to grow up a bit to be able to better understand the story rather than just being bombarded/influenced by the pictures. The flip side of the coin is that screens can be a very useful tool to teach them, show them the world. DD is 5.5 and I use videos to teach about what interests her. She enjoys watching instructional videos (how to cook, how stuff works), documentaries about how differently people live around the world (girl goddesses kumari in Nepal, top Japanese chef's amazing knife skills, footage of distant country where friend moved), and videos that answer her questions about the world "what are rainbows made of? how are kittens born?" She is also allowed to watch music videos for songs that she likes to sing and dance to.

So to your question "When to start relaxing about no screen time?" I'd say, start relaxing when your child's reasoning/understanding is developing enough about 3. Before then, I'd make sure that the images are really wholesome because the child is so very impressionable but not yet at the stage of asking why/how. You'd be surprised what kind of junk youtube's algorithms put in the suggested videos toddlers click on.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you have a second

This

Definitely this. One of the many things I was arrogant about until I learned the error of my ways

[Anonymous]

My first child had no screens until 2. I was very anti screens. Then I had a second and he watched some tv just so I could survive. Now I have 3 kids ages 2, 8 and 10. The kids get 5-10 hours per week. I think it was silly how much I thought I was protecting my kid with the no screen time rule. All my kids are smart well rounded kids. Older kids are in the gifted program at school, love to read, excel in math, enjoy legos, games and play 3 sports each.

My almost 3yo will watch some nick jr or pbs kids when I help older kids with homework or the afternoon chaos of activities. I think she will survive life even though she watches an episode of wild kratts or paw patrol.