Let's be honest, how much time does your child spend watching TV per day?

[Anonymous]

Seriously, no judging this is an anonymous board, how much time and what age is your child? Mine-age 3 and watches 45 min TV per day. More if sick, like last week when we had the flu we watched practically all day.

[Anonymous]

Same here. About 45 min to 1 hour per day, but on rainy days or when DS is sick, we may watch more and on occasion, we have watched it all day.

[Anonymous]

They watch in the AM while we get everyone showered, dressed, etc. And then oldest one watches again while I put littler one down for nap. In total, same as you -- 45 min to an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, no judging this is an anonymous board, how much time and what age is your child? Mine-age 3 and watches 45 min TV per day. More if sick, like last week when we had the flu we watched practically all day.

This summer, we moved, and b/c of the chaos, I do believe TV raised my two during their break.

[Anonymous]

Some days none, some days 30-60 minutes. Some days we'll watch a movie, which means more screen time.

[Anonymous]

In the summer or during school? During summer, DC3 watches probably 2 hours of TV on average. She would watch all day if I didn't kick her out to the yard. DC2 watches 30 mins-1 hour and DC1 doesn't watch much TV at all. Maybe one show per week.

[Anonymous]

during the week, 15-20 minutes. weekends, an hour to an hour and half.

[Anonymous]

1-2 hrs (while we get ready and I'm tending to our newborn). Once we had the second it was nearly impossible to manage/watch the first while dealing with a baby so we have to rely on our "electronic babysitter."

[Anonymous]

During week, 0 screen time. Sat/Sun about 1-1.5 hours in the morning of streaming netflix. We do not have a TV so they watch on a computer.

[Anonymous]

None Monday through Thursday. We sometimes have movie night on Friday, and another hour or so Sat and Sun. The best thing we ever did was move the TV to the basement. It used to be in the family room, off the kitchen, and was on as background a lot. Or else we'd put on one show, which turned into two, three.

[Anonymous]

None. Our tv broke when DH and I were moving in together and we never replaced it, so the kids have never had one. We house-sit for a neighbor when she needs it and sometimes during the day when we're house-sitting I'll go over and watch for like 5 hours straight.

[Anonymous]

Well, our TV broke a year ago... so none. And during that time, DC1 learned to read. Because he had nothing better to do!

Once in a great while (ie, once a month), I'll try and find a show for myself or the children on youtube.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:during the week, 15-20 minutes. weekends, an hour to an hour and half.

This

[Anonymous]

This thread cracked me up. We have a neighbor who swears up, down and sideways, rather smugly, that (ALL 6 of) HER kids do not watch t.v.

Cue my kids standing in our backyard watching that neighbors computer screen next to the window, as the screen is constantly on!

Typical

[Anonymous]

We honestly don't do much TV. It's not a holier than thou thing or an absolute, though. It felt important to me with my first to limit the TV when he was really young (worry about attention spans) and by the time I'd relaxed a bit as a parent, we were kind of into a groove where TV just didn't have a huge role to play in our house. We let DS, who is 3 now, watch for a little bit if he asks. He asks about once every 10 days or so, not often at all, and he'll usually only watch for about 20 minutes before finding something else to do.

Of course, that's just TV and doesn't count computer / ipad / phone screentime. We will let him watch some videos occasionally; usually documentaries but occasionally funny animals videos. For instance, we recently traveled to costa rica and saw a ton of nature stuff and when we got home, we got books about the animals and plants, but we also pull up videos to show the kids when they showed interest about things we saw. There are definitely exceptions: I also downloaded some vintage Mr. Rogers a month ago and we spent a rainy afternoon watching the shows together and talking about the characters and how I watched them when I was a little girl, etc.

Obviously, I think some children are probably watching too much TV, and I also think some shows are too much for young kids to handle (both plot and pace) and I think it can be a distraction thing for kids and families in general. But, I think you can go too far in the opposite direction, drawing a line in the sand that says "no TV ever," and then you miss out on some pretty neat things your kids can enjoy. There are some who say "it's unnecessary" but many enjoyable things in life are not strictly necessary, (reading fiction, for instance) either. As long as there is a balance to what the child enjoys, I do think some TV (screen time is what I really mean) can play a valid role. Some children's programming is just totally disposable, not that there's not a place for mindless stuff, but it's not all mindless, either. I genuinely think a show like Mr. Roger's neighborhood, or how Sesame Street used to be, is a valid form of art.

OKay, probably not the reply you were after! Ha ha ha. But I've actually been giving this some thought lately. A friend of mine is sending her child to a waldorf preK and they asked her to promise not to allow screen time, and we had a similar conversation over coffee a few weeks ago.