Kindergarten parents - how much screen time are your kids getting?

[Anonymous]

DC spends way too much time playing video games. Types quite well when he has something to tell other players. Read well also because there's always something on the screen and he wants to know what it is.

[Anonymous]

6-10 hours.

[Anonymous]

My DD is in K. She has between 1.5 and 2 hours of live instruction (depending on whether she wants to do the specials) and about another 1.5 hour of “work”. Usually the work consists of watching a short pre recorded video or voice message and then doing an exercise (writing, math games, phonics or reading). That’s probably a total of 2-2.5 hours a day of screen time with her school work. I think she is learning a lot and I don’t feel bad about that. She is also watching one movie a day after lunch when baby is sleeping. So I would say she spends between 3 and 3.5hours per day. Saturday and Sunday it’s only the movie so (1 hour or a little more).

[Anonymous]

Here is my opinion for what its worth. Most kids that age are awake 12 hours a day, give or take an hour.
Even if they are watching 4 hours a day, than means 8 hours a day they are not. 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon or evening is not terrible in my opinion as long as they are doing other things as well.

A kid being on screens 8-10 hours a day with no outside time whatsoever, thats a problem.

I think this is helpful perspective. My 4.5 yo DD sleeps 9-10 hours at night, so is awake 14-15 hours. She is currently getting about 4 hours of screen time a day (unfortunately no learning screen time - her preschool has closed for now so is not offering it). It's broken up into chunks, with walks outside, coloring, independent play, etc, in between. Dh and I are both TWing full time with no outside help and i"m very pregnant, so staying up late at night to catch up on work is not in the cards for me. We're all doing the best we can.

[Anonymous]

My K student doesn’t have that much screen time beyond school assignments just because she’s not that interested in it anymore, I don’t restrict it. I’ll have her do Reading Eggs for 15-20 minutes(however long it takes to complete a level on her map.) I’d say she gets about 45 minutes a day unless the weather is bad and she might have more time.

[Anonymous]

5 year old gets 30 min show in the morning while I wake up and drink coffee, 30 minute show while I cook dinner. If there were no behavior issues, 20-30 min of Noggin app or PBSKids games on iPad after dinner. Any more than that, I feel like a horrible mother.

[Anonymous]

My daughters are almost 5, they get 1-2 hours day of the following approved content: Osmo games on iPad, Keyboaring without tears on PC, Chinese math and language classes on Zebra AI app, certain iPad apps such as epic, Kada story and games like Thinkrolls or prodigy once every few days. They can watch Netflix shows too, but in Mandarin only. We also have weekly family movie nights, those are in English since my husband only speaks English.

[Anonymous]

My APS K student is doing similar -
2 hours of BrainPop, Starfall, Dreambox. A little bit of Kids A-Z and Homer / Khan Kids.
2-3 hours of TV - but a lot of PBS kids like Odd Squad and Word Girl which I don’t feel too bad about. Not sure if he is learning anything, but my 3yr old sure is!

[Anonymous]

All the screens all day. Even if I get a break from work, I'm exhausted.

I felt bad until I realized that, in the end, this will be a blip in their lives. They will be fine. Habits are easy to break at young ages. And the struggle of breaking the tv habit is still less than the struggle without tv right now.

[Anonymous]

Still no screen time except for zoom meeting with her teacher and helping me upload her school work at the end of the day. She’s in a private school that doesn’t allow the kids recreational screen time. And they are keeping with this even during this shutdown.

[Anonymous]

I wish OP had asked to include if both parents are working right now in their answers. We both work and I’m laughing at some of these answers.

[Anonymous]

Not a ton, but I have twin girls in K so they are pretty awesome at playing together. Luckily we have a lot of outdoor space and they love riding bikes and climbing trees. They do some school in the mornings and then the afternoons are a hodgepodge of my husband and I coming up with things for them to do while we each try to work full-time. They are big into puzzles and coloring, both of which they are pretty happy to do for a while. And then they just play together a lot. If I only had one of them they'd be watching a lot more for sure, and I wouldn't feel bad about it at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:5 year old gets 30 min show in the morning while I wake up and drink coffee, 30 minute show while I cook dinner. If there were no behavior issues, 20-30 min of Noggin app or PBSKids games on iPad after dinner. Any more than that, I feel like a horrible mother.

Uh-huh. And are you working during the day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish OP had asked to include if both parents are working right now in their answers. We both work and I’m laughing at some of these answers.

Same here. I couldn't really care less what SAHM families are doing about screens right now.

[Anonymous]

It really varies by day. I gave up trying to manage it and to my utter shock after about two weeks of binging, he abruptly declared he was tired of tv and didn't want to watch it anymore. He occasionally asks to watch a movie but beyond that he seems to be done. He has zoom playdates with friends that go on for hours but it's interactive so I don't really care. He has, however, discovered podcasts. He probably spends 4+ hours a day listening to podcasts. He does other stuff while listening so it's fine.