I also wouldn’t stress about sneaking off to an office. I have constant video meetings and my 2 and 4 year old are usually playing at my feet or in the same room. I just use headphones and stay muted unless I’m speaking. You may have a different situation but my formerly high strung workplace has normalized seeing and hearing kids in the background.

Obviously not a game changer, but Sesame Street has only been 30 minutes for the last 5+ years, so you'll have to curate two episodes a day, if you're selecting from the more recent seasons.

She'll be fine, you could also consider adding in some iPad time - my 4 year old loves Khan Academy Kids!

OP here. Thanks all, this is really making me feel better. I also appreciate the show suggestions. We are definitely open to other suggestions. She is obsessed with Doc McStuffins and if we lt her choose 100% on her own it will just be three episodes of that a day (and also probably tears when we turn it off because she really, really loves it). It's fine but not exactly educational, so we're trying to mix it up with some stuff that is a little bit more content rich. And yeah, we like that Sesame Street is a full hour because that first hour is the most important part for us in terms of having uninterrupted time.

She definitely does independent play, but our meetings hit at a time when that's hard for her (right between breakfast and snack time). She's really used to that being a somewhat structured time and while obviously TV isn't the ideal structure, at least it vaguely resembles the kind of morning circle and music class that she would be doing at school. At least more so than us planting her with some toys and then sneaking off to the office for video conferences.

Anyway, I really appreciate the validation. I know I'm being neurotic but I just needed to feel a little less guilty about doing this. Thank you!!

The only downside I see is that if she knows you are using tv as a babysitter she will never be able to amuse herself. As long as you make time for independent play too during the day it’s fine.

we did this in the Spring for 12 weeks in the afternoons when our daycare was closed (we alternated mornings off, then there was after lunch quiet time, then tv time) and it was fine--she was a bit bored of TV by the end of the 12 weeks and happy to go back to school. She now watches a bit on the weekends and is no worse for the wear.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's fine, but I don't know that I'd be rigid about Sesame street and then a specific other show. If you want the TV to hold her interest, you're going to follow her lead about what she likes.

Yeah, OP is weirdly strict in thinking there are only 4 shows her kid could possibly watch.

I’m the same way. DS may only watch four shows. Try Zaboomafoo. It’s an early 2000s show about animals.

It’s not the end of the world. I would try to get by with just Sesame street, followed by independent play, but if she can’t, she can’t.

You’re starting with Sesame street first because it’s the longest, right? I would do the same.

I think it’s fine - I basically started doing that at the beginning of the pandemic and have only stopped now that we have childcare again. Octonauts is also good. You also might want to look into story book type things ( I like Vooks, Scholastoc Book Flickr, Epic) but they may not be able to manage it on their own.

Fine. I prefer things like Leap Frog, Preschool prep and other learning shows but 90 minutes a day is fine. You might also want to consider learning apps for reading and math as well.

Anonymous wrote:I think it's fine, but I don't know that I'd be rigid about Sesame street and then a specific other show. If you want the TV to hold her interest, you're going to follow her lead about what she likes.

Yeah, OP is weirdly strict in thinking there are only 4 shows her kid could possibly watch.

I think it's fine, but I don't know that I'd be rigid about Sesame street and then a specific other show. If you want the TV to hold her interest, you're going to follow her lead about what she likes.

I think it’s ok but can she really not play independently for any of that time? Get some magnatiles and that should buy you at least 20-30 minutes each day.

Not a big deal. She’ll be fine and you can easily scale back when you need to.

You need to take a Xanax and calm down.

She’ll be 100% fine.

If we had our 3 year old watch a 90 minute block of television every day for two months, in order to resolve a hole in our childcare that we will not be able to address until January, how bad do you think this would be? We usually limit her to 30 minutes of TV, 3 or 4 days a week (though we know she would happily watch more). But we need to get through Nov-Dec without morning childcare. We are shifting around our schedules a bit (we are both WFH) so that we can take turns with her in the morning, but we both have daily staff/project meetings and they are very hard to move, so if we could occupy her some other way for 90 minutes, it would be enormously helpful.

Our thought is we would have her do one episode of Sesame Street followed by 30 minutes of one of her other permitted shows (Daniel Tiger, Bluey, or Doc McStuffins). We know we may still get interrupted to deal with TV issues or something, but we think this will mostly buy us enough time. In January she'll start a private PK program in the mornings.

I know some people get away with no TV time or extremely limited TV time at this age. We have always tried to be judicious about TV time -- we're not anti-TV, but we mostly want her playing and looking at books and being outside. But we have had an unexpected issue come up with childcare and there is not an obvious answer to it until after the holidays.

Are people horrified by this? Will it be impossible to roll her back to more limited screen time if we do this for a couple months? I'm just looking for a gut check.