If your husband doesn’t want him watching TV and is willing to play with him instead, why not defer to his wishes and not turn on the TV? I don’t see the gain in 15 minutes of cartoon versus not. We let our 3 year old watch the news or a sports game with us if it’s on but she doesn’t watch cartoons yet.

I think up to a half hour is fine. Waiting until 5 or 6 sounds crazy. There's plenty of educational tv shows children can learn from. If you're worried stick to PBS kids.

I wanted to wait til 2 for my first but pandemic hit when she was 18 mos and that ended that.

With my second, he is 20 months and has not done tv yet. We do my older kid’s tv time when the younger one naps. So I think we will just wait til he’s done napping.

Anonymous wrote:We didn't allow any screens for fun until 7th grade. After age 4, they were allowed tv when sick or on a long (2+ hrs) flight.

*Exceptions to "no screens" have always been FaceTiming with relatives and school assignments.

But as babies/toddlers/young preschoolers? No tv.

how long has facetime existed?

Anonymous wrote:We didn't allow any screens for fun until 7th grade. After age 4, they were allowed tv when sick or on a long (2+ hrs) flight.

*Exceptions to "no screens" have always been FaceTiming with relatives and school assignments.

But as babies/toddlers/young preschoolers? No tv.

7th grade?! Wow you are hard core.

We didn't allow any screens for fun until 7th grade. After age 4, they were allowed tv when sick or on a long (2+ hrs) flight.

*Exceptions to "no screens" have always been FaceTiming with relatives and school assignments.

But as babies/toddlers/young preschoolers? No tv.

15 mins? Go for 1 hour. You’ll thank me later.

15 min? That’s not even an episode of Sesame Street

Anonymous wrote:TV is not harmful to children. What is harmful is replacing actual human interaction with TV. Obviously, 15 minutes a day does not mean you aren't interacting with your child.

This. There's nothing inherently wrong with tv. My kids watch a lot of tv but also get a lot of reading, exercise, music, outdoor etc time. Everything in moderation.

Anonymous wrote:TV is not harmful to children. What is harmful is replacing actual human interaction with TV. Obviously, 15 minutes a day does not mean you aren't interacting with your child.

+1 I don’t do any screens because it doesn’t suit me the parent (I don’t watch TV myself and policing fingers off the keyboard of my computer is too much work) but I definitely don’t think they harm kids unless they’re being used in place of a substantial amount of human interaction.

TV is not harmful to children. What is harmful is replacing actual human interaction with TV. Obviously, 15 minutes a day does not mean you aren't interacting with your child.

PP here - let this be daddy time then

Anonymous wrote:I was like your husband and now I let my child (3 yo) watch 30mins-1h per day in these winter days. She’s an only and goes to school only 2 mornings a week. I quickly run out of things to do with her.

Thanks! I think in our case we would only do 15 mins on Sat and then 15 mins on Sun. During the week, he goes to daycare full-time.

I used to watch 30mins-1 hour as a child and it was fine.

I feel like 15 mins twice a week should be completely fine but my husband thinks it's very bad for teh kind.

To me that sounds too extreme

I was like your husband and now I let my child (3 yo) watch 30mins-1h per day in these winter days. She’s an only and goes to school only 2 mornings a week. I quickly run out of things to do with her.

We have a 2.5 year old. I am ok with letting him watch some cartoons for 15 mins on Sat and Sun.

Husband thinks we should not let him watch anything until 5-6.

Thoughts?