My toddler gets 1-2 hours of tv per night

[Anonymous]

I’m a SAHM and spend the day with my toddler. I also have 2 elementary kids. Every night, the toddler gets 1-2 hours of tv so I can prep dinner, help older kids with homework, relax myself for a few min. I feel so guilty for doing this.

How much screen time does your toddler get?

My elementary kids get 1 hour per day but they often don’t use it because they are often busy.

[Anonymous]

Mine got that much and more during some rough periods. He tended to play while it was on. As he got older I loosened up even more and now he goes at least one day a week where he doesn't watch any. Most days it's just one half hour program. He's almost 8. We don't do tablets or computers outside of school or plane trips.

[Anonymous]

Usually 30 min in the am so I can get dressed, feed her newborn sister and get her dressed for preschool.
She was home all week due to illness and it went up to an hour plus across the day.
I try really really hard not to do screen in the evening since it makes her jittery and beg for more and not go to sleep as well.

Can she play with something when you're cooking? We have a learning tower and I let her make a small mess moving Dry beans or whatever from cups to muffin tins and back on a tray. Or cutting celery with a toddler friendly Montessori knife.
When she was even smaller we put the ikea play kitchen in a corner as well and she would bang on that for 20 min running to me with "soup" every 5 min. And we have a tiny kitchen/dining area but it was worth it to have to cramped and have her right there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a SAHM and spend the day with my toddler. I also have 2 elementary kids. Every night, the toddler gets 1-2 hours of tv so I can prep dinner, help older kids with homework, relax myself for a few min. I feel so guilty for doing this.

How much screen time does your toddler get?

My elementary kids get 1 hour per day but they often don’t use it because they are often busy.

Do you think it’s a good or bad thing for him?

[Anonymous]

I used to give my toddlers screen time in the morning (around an hour) because they were such early risers and I needed my coffee, time to nurse the baby etc. They are late elementary and middle school ages now and doing great, healthy, make great grades, avoid screen time completely on weekdays. All is well.

I’d cut it down to one hour but beyond that, don’t worry so much.

[Anonymous]

Earlier bedtime for toddler.

[Anonymous]

Mine gets at least that and seems to be doing just fine. In the last year we’ve moved 500 miles, lived with (tv-obsessed) family for 6 months, moved into a new house that required a good bit of work in addition to unpacking, I’ve been pregnant and now I have a newborn that currently requires I pump and bottle feed. I’m only one person and my toddler is a serious climber and trouble-seeker. She watches far less TV on weekends when my husband is home (and never saw a screen her first 18 months) but it’s just life now and I’m okay with it.

[Anonymous]

I am also a SAHM and my DH works until 8:30 or 9 every night, so the days for me are long. We have gone through periods where the toddler-aged one (I have three total) watches very little and periods where he watches 1 hour or more (new baby, nursing, different bedtimes, homework struggles of older brother, etc.). They all seem fine now in elementary school - above grade level, healthy, active, great kids. I certainly felt some guilt along they way and I wish I hadn’t worried about it. Sometimes you do what you have to do to get the stuff done that needs to be done. It all works itself out.

[Anonymous]

Nbd

[Anonymous]

If you’re fine with it, keep doing it. If you’re not, encourage him to play on his own. Blocks, trains, coloring, books. Just take TV option away and your kid will figure it out.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s totally fine. There are some good quality kids shows out there. My preschooler has learned a lot from Daniel Tiger, Blaze, Super Why and other shows.

[Anonymous]

I would feel guilty too. Two hours a day? Why don’t you make better use of the time your toddler is napping and the other kids are in school to get things done?

[Anonymous]

So my toddler got that amount during the day while I was a SAHM. He’s also the kid who, now at age 9, is more addicted to screens than his older sibling who got less screens as a toddler. I can’t prove any direct correlation, but I do wonder. Can you prep dinner earlier in the day? Can you set your toddler in the high chair with play doh while the others do homework? I think it’s fine here and there, even more often than not, but if you make it a habit—a need—then you could be creating an addiction down the road.

[Anonymous]

I try to keep it to an hour, but sometimes it is 2. I'm not worried about it and neither should you.

[Anonymous]

My 3 YO has no screen time. I WOH and consider it part of the trade off that I don’t get burned out on my kids and put them in front of a screen. My kid goes in the morning with kids that go home in the afternoons with their SAMS and those kids are the ones obsessed with Disney and princesses and sparkle twirly dresses from all the tv they watch.