Unlimited screen time - how much do you think your kids watch?

[Anonymous]

I limit my 4yo and 6yo to one tv show each so they get a total of about 45 min per day. We often have family movie night on Fri and kids may get an extra hour on Sat or Sun. When they were younger, they got no screen time at all. Some of our friends don't limit screen time and their kids seem to always be on some sort of device - tv, ipad, wii, xbox, computer. Every time we see them, they are playing games or watching tv. DH reminds me that we grew up watching tv. I admittedly watched a ton of tv as a child, probably 3 hours per day, more on weekends and breaks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I limit my 4yo and 6yo to one tv show each so they get a total of about 45 min per day. We often have family movie night on Fri and kids may get an extra hour on Sat or Sun. When they were younger, they got no screen time at all. Some of our friends don't limit screen time and their kids seem to always be on some sort of device - tv, ipad, wii, xbox, computer. Every time we see them, they are playing games or watching tv. DH reminds me that we grew up watching tv. I admittedly watched a ton of tv as a child, probably 3 hours per day, more on weekends and breaks.

I think the issue here is the bolded. My kids have unlimited screen time, but I don't allow devices during times they are supposed to be socializing, unless it is the Wii (where other people can participate). I wouldn't come to your house and then let my kid play on my phone the whole time.

[Anonymous]

Week days probably between zero and 30 minutes. After school there is homework and chores and then dinner. After dinner there is shower and bedtime. She often reads before bed, but if she wanted to watch a little tv that is ok too. On weekends we often watch a family movie together, but other than that maybe 30 minutes of you tube videos. Usually homework is done in the morning and then activities in the afternoon. Tonight she will be going to a sleepover and I am sure there will be lots of tv. That's what sleepovers are for! Our rule is if your school work is done and your household obligations are met, tv is unlimited. And sometimes we have an at home day with nothing planned. There is plenty of tv watching on those (too few) days.

[Anonymous]

With our first, we did no screen time until 2. Now at 5, she gets one show a night if there is time and every couple of weekends we do family movie night. Our second is only a baby, but I can already see that there's pretty much no way to avoid screens for him since #1's show will be happening while #2 is awake, as would family movie night since their bed times are pretty close together.

I have 2 young cousins like you describe and they are always on some type of device. Even when it's Christmas and the entire family is gathered, they never stop with the Minecraft or whatever it is they are into at the time.

I watched quite a bit of tv as a kid, but I was always expected to be present when we had company and as we only had one tv it certainly wasn't on when my parents were entertaining and if my parents wanted to watch the news or whatever, that was what was on and it generally lacked appeal to us kids so we'd find other things to do instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I limit my 4yo and 6yo to one tv show each so they get a total of about 45 min per day. We often have family movie night on Fri and kids may get an extra hour on Sat or Sun. When they were younger, they got no screen time at all. Some of our friends don't limit screen time and their kids seem to always be on some sort of device - tv, ipad, wii, xbox, computer. Every time we see them, they are playing games or watching tv. DH reminds me that we grew up watching tv. I admittedly watched a ton of tv as a child, probably 3 hours per day, more on weekends and breaks.

You watched 3hrs of TV a day? I watched Saturday morning cartoons and that was it. I was outside all day everyday in my neighborhood playing. Kids don't do that anymore because it is deemed unsafe. So eyes glaring into screens is safer. I wish our neighbors would just let their kids outside to play, at least on the weekends.

My 14yr old watches no TV and uses her phone about an hour a day outside of school. Her school doesn't allow cell phones out of the lockers except after lunch for 10min. She plays a sport a season and has 3hrs of homework at night. Any downtime is texting, instagraming, looking at videos.

My 7yr old would watch tv or screens all of the time so she is limited to one 30min TV show and 30min of screen time a day. She has no screen time before school and none and hour before bed. She usually has an activity or friends over after school so her screen time is usually while I am getting dinner ready. On the weekends we are more lax. We do movie night and we let her on the iPad a lot more. But for the most part we are out and about and I am always saying "sure you can use the iPad, can you go outback and play with the dog first?" Then she is usually out there for 30min imaginative play or I go out and play with her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Week days probably between zero and 30 minutes. After school there is homework and chores and then dinner. After dinner there is shower and bedtime. She often reads before bed, but if she wanted to watch a little tv that is ok too. On weekends we often watch a family movie together, but other than that maybe 30 minutes of you tube videos. Usually homework is done in the morning and then activities in the afternoon. Tonight she will be going to a sleepover and I am sure there will be lots of tv. That's what sleepovers are for! Our rule is if your school work is done and your household obligations are met, tv is unlimited. And sometimes we have an at home day with nothing planned. There is plenty of tv watching on those (too few) days.

Same policy here as bolded above. Except due to our schedules my DS gets more than that in screen time. He gets from 30min- 1 hour in am (depending when we leave for work, if we are all sleeping in a bit than less, if I have to be in by 8am, than more) before grandma takes him to the bus. He also gets about 30min-1hour after dinner/dog walking and before bed. On weekends it really depends since they are super busy with chores/playdates/swim practice, so I would estimate about the same overall.

[Anonymous]

It depends. During the school week, we don't allow any screen time. Kids are 10y and 9y.

Friday night-Sunday night we don't limit per se, but will make them get off to play outside when the weather is nice. This winter, they have played a lot of PS4 and watched a lot of stuff online. Once it is nice out, we will kick them outside to play with their friends at the park. So, for the winter, they will play Friday nights 7-9, Saturday 7a-9a and then more depending if we are home or not. Sunday 7a-8a and then 3p-6p depending on what we do after church, errands, etc. By 6pm we having dinner and getting ready for the week.

During the summer we aren't home nearly as much on the weekends with sports, travel, visits to the pool, etc. So, viewing/playing goes way down.

To me, it is about balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends. During the school week, we don't allow any screen time. Kids are 10y and 9y.

Friday night-Sunday night we don't limit per se, but will make them get off to play outside when the weather is nice. This winter, they have played a lot of PS4 and watched a lot of stuff online. Once it is nice out, we will kick them outside to play with their friends at the park. So, for the winter, they will play Friday nights 7-9, Saturday 7a-9a and then more depending if we are home or not. Sunday 7a-8a and then 3p-6p depending on what we do after church, errands, etc. By 6pm we having dinner and getting ready for the week.

During the summer we aren't home nearly as much on the weekends with sports, travel, visits to the pool, etc. So, viewing/playing goes way down.

To me, it is about balance.

+1 This is pretty much us exactly, DCs are 8 and 10

[Anonymous]

My 8 yr old doesn't watch tv at all just YouTube. He does all his English homework on a computer. Most of his books are on a screen. He attends an immersion language school and most/all the resources to support the language including books in the target language are on a screen.

He plays tournament chess on a board against people on the weekends but a lot of his training/practice is on the computer.

He also loves to play Minecraft. He plays a sport and goes to Hebrew school during the week.

So he is on a screen a lot. But as long as he gets everything he is suppose to get done, done, we aren't concerned. He gets excellent grades and loves school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I limit my 4yo and 6yo to one tv show each so they get a total of about 45 min per day. We often have family movie night on Fri and kids may get an extra hour on Sat or Sun. When they were younger, they got no screen time at all. Some of our friends don't limit screen time and their kids seem to always be on some sort of device - tv, ipad, wii, xbox, computer. Every time we see them, they are playing games or watching tv. DH reminds me that we grew up watching tv. I admittedly watched a ton of tv as a child, probably 3 hours per day, more on weekends and breaks.

You watched 3hrs of TV a day? I watched Saturday morning cartoons and that was it. I was outside all day everyday in my neighborhood playing. Kids don't do that anymore because it is deemed unsafe. So eyes glaring into screens is safer. I wish our neighbors would just let their kids outside to play, at least on the weekends.

My 14yr old watches no TV and uses her phone about an hour a day outside of school. Her school doesn't allow cell phones out of the lockers except after lunch for 10min. She plays a sport a season and has 3hrs of homework at night. Any downtime is texting, instagraming, looking at videos.

My 7yr old would watch tv or screens all of the time so she is limited to one 30min TV show and 30min of screen time a day. She has no screen time before school and none and hour before bed. She usually has an activity or friends over after school so her screen time is usually while I am getting dinner ready. On the weekends we are more lax. We do movie night and we let her on the iPad a lot more. But for the most part we are out and about and I am always saying "sure you can use the iPad, can you go outback and play with the dog first?" Then she is usually out there for 30min imaginative play or I go out and play with her.

OP here. Yes, I watched 3 hrs of tv per day as a kid. When I got older, I found better things to do with my time. I didn't have a tv in college or grad school. DH actually bought me a tv when we were dating so he could watch tv at my apartment. I want my kids to run around and play, which is why I limit screen time.

[Anonymous]

My kid has more screen time in school than at home.
When they don't have outdoor recess, the school turns on the tv sometimes and they watch a video! that goes the same for after care. So, during the very cold and snowy days, they didn't let the kids out for a week.

At home, he gets 1 hr screen time on the weekend. During Xmas and the release of Star Wars in December, it was up to 4 hrs for the week...Charlie Brown Xmas and the very first Star Wars.

He's 6 years old. I'm sure he wants more but that's all you gonna get now kiddo.

[Anonymous]

If DS gets through his list of "chores" in the morning before school, he can play a video game until it's time to leave. DH says that ends up being 15 mins max.

Occasionally he asks to watch a couple of Minecraft videos, so if homework is done, that's fine with me.

On the weekends, he and DH play some video games. I think he probably gets 5 hours / week of screen time, give or take depending on weather, etc.

[Anonymous]

My son used to have unlimited screen time. He'd watch one or two shows on weeknights, and maybe a couple of hours on the weekends after dinner. We always are very physically active most of the day on weekends, so his vegging in front of the TV was fine with me.

But then Minecraft. He'd pick up the ipad in the mornings before school, and that caused all sorts of fights about getting ready in a timely manner. And then he'd rather play Minecraft than do homework. So now we have a no screen policy Monday through Thursday. He can play as he pleases on weekends. Fortunately he hasn't given up all his other activities and interests, or I'd have to limit it more.

[Anonymous]

We have unlimited screen time. We have two kids, 6 years apart. The oldest one used to watch so much TV that I worried about it. Now, I think it was the right choice because she prefers to read, practice guitar, jump on the trampoline, etc. There's no forbidden fruit aspect for screen time so she seems ambivalent about it. So with the youngest, we decided to use the same approach. He is allowed to watch TV or play with apps, and he likes to, and I'm interested to see how he progresses.

Regarding their physical/intellectual development, my oldest is considerably more athletic than other kids. She is involved in a lot of sports, and is very active at home, running around and doing handstands. Intellectually, she is (like all children, right) above average. One thing I see about her that is different is that she understands the Internet and will look things up to learn about them. (She has a phone, which we heavily monitor).

I don't believe the hype that screen time stunts development. I have heard this nonsense that the children don't develop vocabulary from TV because the portions of their brains that light up when talking to people don't light up when they are hearing dialogue on TV. Okay, but how do you explain when my toddler can sing the theme song of a cartoon? There is a leap of logic in interpreting the research-- the brain activity portion could signal social interaction, not verbal processing. So my approach is to focus on providing an enriching environment, rather than focusing on not allowing screen time.

FWIW, I also called BS on the nonsense about not feeding your children peanuts or eggs as babies because they may develop allergies. In fact with my second, his first food was egg and he ate peanut butter regularly. And now, the research is showing that babies of parents who followed the medical guidance to withhold those foods have higher instances of allergenic reactions to those foods. My point is, the advice you get from your pediatrician is based on available research, which is flawed, and very likely to change. So parent the way that you think is right, and trust yourself to make the right call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8 yr old doesn't watch tv at all just YouTube. He does all his English homework on a computer. Most of his books are on a screen. He attends an immersion language school and most/all the resources to support the language including books in the target language are on a screen.

He plays tournament chess on a board against people on the weekends but a lot of his training/practice is on the computer.

He also loves to play Minecraft. He plays a sport and goes to Hebrew school during the week.

So he is on a screen a lot. But as long as he gets everything he is suppose to get done, done, we aren't concerned. He gets excellent grades and loves school.

Grades and school being the only important things.