I’m really surprised by this for pre-covid. Obviously post-covid for the 5-8 it wouldn’t be surprising, but even post covid my 3 year old is no where remotely close to this stat and I don’t consider us crazy no screen people. He watches a show or two a couple times a week when we all need some relax time. We watch a YouTube video here and there throughout the week on topics that come up he wants to know more about. Where did this stat come from?

Anonymous wrote:Is more than 2 hrs a day a problem? I don’t get what the big deal is.

It depends on the age which, as a poster above mentioned, makes this statistic not particularly illuminating.

Is more than 2 hrs a day a problem? I don’t get what the big deal is.

Anonymous wrote:We are in the 2%, which seems crazy because I feel like our 3 yr old is on screens too much. Honestly, this statistic makes me feel like we should relax about screens more for our own sanity. We both work (though my schedule is very flexible) and have no childcare during Covid. The last 9 months have been... a lot. Maybe I'll take a "vacation" next week and just let her watch 3-4 hours of TV a day while I read books and take baths and just relax for a while.

Go for it! It really is like a vacation.

We are in the 2%, which seems crazy because I feel like our 3 yr old is on screens too much. Honestly, this statistic makes me feel like we should relax about screens more for our own sanity. We both work (though my schedule is very flexible) and have no childcare during Covid. The last 9 months have been... a lot. Maybe I'll take a "vacation" next week and just let her watch 3-4 hours of TV a day while I read books and take baths and just relax for a while.

I thank God every day for the screens. I love kid screen time!!!

I’m surprised that the stats were that high before COVID. DS 1 is four. He watches one episode of PBS kids (30 minutes) and about three youtube videos with supervision (15 minutes a day.) Younger child does not watch TV or videos. Never more than 30 minutes of Facetime a day, and certainly not every day.

I get that during COVID, lots of parents don’t have childcare. Before COVID, what was your kid watching and when?

My youngest child would have been one of the 0 year olds who was in the same room as screens 2 hours a day, on average. He has an older sibling with asthma, who'd watch 2 shows while getting a nebulizer treatment, a mom who liked to go online while nursing the baby in the middle of the night, a Dad who'd put a game on in the background while building legos or doing a household chores. I think it adds up faster than people realize.

Ages 0- 8 is a big age range. It's comparing apples to oranges with such a broad cohort. This automatically makes the "study" dubious at best. And thank you expert scientists for stating the obvious. Tell us something we don't already know.

Pre pandemic my kids, 8 and 11, watched 0 on school days and 2 hours on weekends, plus family show and gaming time. They didn’t look at screens before the age of two.

Now they are on basically all the time. We have some token outside time and they participate in some activities but it’s probably like 8 hours a day on non-school days (and more on school days).

I’m not proud, but I’m also okay with it. One of my kids taught himself to code, they play with their real-life friends, they watch interesting stuff, they play silly iPhone games while listening to audiobooks, etc. I’m confident that when the pandemic is over we will go back to regular rules.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they do (unless you are in a household where one parent is not working) - what world are those who think otherwise living in?

Or a household with a nanny. DH is deployed and I work full time from home (currently). We have an 8 year old and two year old and are solidly in the 2%. Toddler has never seen a screen and older DS gets one show and 30 minutes on his tablet when I’m putting toddler to bed.

I am assuming this doesn’t include remote school.

I'm really concerned about the fact that you don't let your little one facetime or see videos of their father. You might want to rethink your policy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they do (unless you are in a household where one parent is not working) - what world are those who think otherwise living in?

Or a household with a nanny. DH is deployed and I work full time from home (currently). We have an 8 year old and two year old and are solidly in the 2%. Toddler has never seen a screen and older DS gets one show and 30 minutes on his tablet when I’m putting toddler to bed.

I am assuming this doesn’t include remote school.

Why would you assume this? Of course it includes school, and screens at school, etc . . .

Where is your toddler when their sibling is doing school? Where are they when you are on DCUM? How have they never been to a store that had screens?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m guessing this is pre-COVID and it’s actually much, much higher now.

Yes, this stat is pre-Covid. Though, how much higher could it get!

Could you link a source?

Anonymous wrote:Of course they do (unless you are in a household where one parent is not working) - what world are those who think otherwise living in?

Or a household with a nanny. DH is deployed and I work full time from home (currently). We have an 8 year old and two year old and are solidly in the 2%. Toddler has never seen a screen and older DS gets one show and 30 minutes on his tablet when I’m putting toddler to bed.

I am assuming this doesn’t include remote school.

Of course they do (unless you are in a household where one parent is not working) - what world are those who think otherwise living in?