Give it to me straight - how much tv are your kids watching?

[Anonymous]

One hour and forty three minutes per day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, OP, don't even ask, you have a newborn - you should be doing whatever you need to do to stay sane!! If that's 3-4 hours of TV or other screen time, then so be it. Your kids will be FINE. What's most important is that they have happy parents who love them, and they know it. And I'm sure they do.



[And the reason I wrote all of that above to preface my answer is b/c DH and I have flexible work from home schedules right now and I have a 4 and a 7 year old and they watch 20-40 minutes of TV a day, plus another 30-60 minutes of either a game or some other video like the Mo Willems drawing or a ballet lesson, or a music lesson, or a ballet show, or something like that. But 4 and 7 and two parents who are working from home with very flexible schedules is SO DIFFERENT from the situation you're in right now. You're in survival mode. Do what you need to do to survive.]

+1 to all of this. Newborn time is survival mode!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One hour and forty three minutes per day.

You're a terrible parent. We only exceed one hour and forty-two minutes on days that end in Y.

[Anonymous]

This is also my day...but paw patrol instead of thomas the train. More tv and dc is spastic at the end of the day.

Anonymous wrote:Trying to WFH and take care of my 3 year old. DH is "essential" (he's not, but another story), and daycare is closed. I allow 2 hours of Sesame Street in the morning, a couple of Thomas episodes after nap, and then troubleshoot from there. DS will happily watch Let's Make a Deal and Price is Right ("He won a car!") so I can get a couple more hours of work done, so that's what I've been doing.

7-9 am: Sesame Street, mostly uninterrupted work time
9-10 am: Play time with kid
10 am-12 pm: Game shows while I work semi-interrupted in dining room
12-1 pm: Lunch and getting ready for nap
1-3 pm: nap, uninterrupted work time
3-4 pm: Thomas and playtime
4-5:30 pm: Whatever I have to put on to get through this awful time as I frantically try to finish up work and get dinner started
5:30 pm: "The house is a mess, what did you do all day?" Sobbing

[Anonymous]

I never understand this worry. I grew up in the 60’s and spent my summers watching TV all day. My grandmother got me hooked on soap operas. I still love TV, and I turned out just fine. I never restricted my kids and both are college educated and very successful. Why the big to do?

[Anonymous]

Honestly it would be easier to calculate how many hours he’s NOT on a screen.

[Anonymous]

A ton. And we're both working -- or trying to. And i'm homeschooling as well.

[Anonymous]

A ton. Paw Patrol from dawn to dusk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never understand this worry. I grew up in the 60’s and spent my summers watching TV all day. My grandmother got me hooked on soap operas. I still love TV, and I turned out just fine. I never restricted my kids and both are college educated and very successful. Why the big to do?

Today's mothers are ninnies. They are trying to create the "perfect" child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids get 1-1.5 hours of non-educational screens per day, but they are older (11 & 9) and DH and I are both working FT from home.

If you're a SAHM, 3-4 hours of screens feels like a lot - is this new? But you have younger kids and a newborn - do what you gotta do to survive! No judgments here.

Are you kidding me? She has a newborn and 2 young kids. You can’t compare them to your kids. Plus we are all stuck at home.


We usually are out and about. We hang out with friends, have activities. We are all stuck at home.

I know. See bolded parts above.

[Anonymous]

I am working from home with a 2 and 4 y/o who both wake up early so it’s hard to front load my day. They probably watch about 2 hours early on. DH and I swap off to do activities with them. Then another 2 hours in the afternoon (my job won’t let me work past 6 so I’m cramming it in). Then another 30-45 min while we try to straighten up and make dinner. It’s not great. But it is what it is.

We are also building a new LEGO set, baking cookies, going for walks, playing outside when it’s nice out, doing puzzles, etc. I really don’t know what alternative there is because my kids don’t nap. Luckily without the nap they go to bed by 7:30 so silver linings.

[Anonymous]

None because it makes my kids cranky and I’m currently not working. Doesn’t mean things are better over here. We do too much screen time for school stuff (early elementary) and I’m not super motivated with homeschooling. Just trying to be calm and peaceful and make some stuff and get outside once a day. I feel for those of you who don’t have a SAHP.

[Anonymous]

So much ugh, but as someone earlier said...do what you have to do to survive! I have a Kindergartener and my husband and I have to work full time, as so many others are, but we're lucky to be both at home.

7:15-8: eat breakfast and watch netflix
8-8:30: Cincinnati Zoo animal thing from day before
8:30-9: walk dog/get fresh air, do a go noodle/cosmic yoga
9-10: Kindergarten via facetime with my MIL
10-12: coloring, pebble go, scholastic books, PBS kids math games
12-1: eat lunch, walk dog, play
1-2: second hour of school with MIL
2-3: quiet time in room no screens
3-5: walk dog yet again, facetime with friends, watch a movie
...so that's a lot of screen time. Whatever, we're working, she's surviving. Sometimes we do an experiment or bake something. Eh, we're making it with minimal outbursts from any of us, so I guess that's a success? It will change slightly with whatever MCPS assigns starting tomorrow but hopefully not too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never understand this worry. I grew up in the 60’s and spent my summers watching TV all day. My grandmother got me hooked on soap operas. I still love TV, and I turned out just fine. I never restricted my kids and both are college educated and very successful. Why the big to do?

Today's mothers are ninnies. They are trying to create the "perfect" child.

TV all day at age 10 is very different from TV all day at age 3.

[Anonymous]

OMG so much. It's double-feature matinees 24/7. 2 working full time parents with busier b/c of Covid jobs. 2 toddlers.

We are the TV and the TV is us.