Screen time

We have the tv on all day. But a lot of times I have Spotify on with the lyrics running on the tv because my son likes to look at the words. Other than that I’ll throw on bluey or a Pixar movie but a lot of times my son isn’t paying attention to the tv and just playing with his toys. He is autistic but he doesn’t freak out when the tv is off

@Tiffany I appreciate that. My son will ask for the tv and get upset if I don’t turn it on but then gets over it. I believe he has adhd like I do so he has a tough time adjusting to things but he normally plays with it being on.

My son will definitely ask for it, but mostly when he’s calming down before his nap because he’s very routine based. So when we get home our morning errands he will get the remote and bring it to me and climb on the couch with his stuffed goat and sippy cup to wind down

We only watch it on the weekends after breakfast and after nap. But during the week, it causes more problems if we let him before daycare. And after daycare is too close to bedtime

I think it depends on a lot. For example, less screen time would be recommended for a child in daycare as they aren’t getting 1:1 interaction throughout the day, and if they’re then watching tv the hours they’re home, then they could fall behind on language skills or bonding with parents. If you’re child is staying home with you and you are interacting and playing with them 1:1 all day, then I think more screen time is totally okay. I let my 2.5 year old watch 1 hour a day (some days more) now that I have a newborn because I need the break! But because we interact so much otherwise, her language skills are very advanced and we have a very secure attachment. But overall, parents are just trying to do the best they can in a world that isn’t really set up to support us. So if you need to do more than the recommended amount of screen time, that’s totally okay.

She only watches tv on the weekends we watch bluey, frozen, and Madagascar. She has 0 screen time at daycare which I love. I don’t plan on getting her an iPad. We use the phone to FaceTime grandparents. I also want to model good behavior so we are not always scrolling in front of her we still need to work on that a lot but we do no phones at meals

At 6pm I tell my daughter that the cartoons go to sleep. That’s my “TV Curfew.” During the day, once she’s hit 1hr-1.5hrs, I secretly turn off the TV & when she asks “what happened?” I say “the TV needs a rest.” Toy rotation helps & cocomelon on Pandora helps which I occasionally play for her on my phone.

Starting with at least one step at a time would be the way to go about it. The “TV curfew” would be a good first step.

I felt the same way and I have started only putting on nature documentaries during the day if my 2yo asks for TV. She watches for a couple mins and then gets bored and plays. I let her watch whatever before bed when we are settling down. It took a few days for her to adjust but it has helped her play independently and less meltdowns.

I worked at a daycare that had the tv on all day long and I found the kids to be sooo overstimulated even if they didn’t watch the tv it was just added noise to the already craziness going on. That conditioned my kids to want it on all the time or they couldn’t focus so I did a full detox of screens for awhile and then slowly added in a show here and there. I have 4 kids so the older 3 normally choose to play together and ask to go play outside more than they ask to watch a show. I’ll do 1-2 episodes or 1 movie usually on the weekends but sometimes we watch a movie a few nights a week as a family after dinner. I go by their moods. If they’re extra cranky a show is just going to overstimulate them and make them even more sassy which nobody needs 😅 in the winter we definitely watch more stuff because they can’t get outside because of negative temps but in the summer it’s rarely ever on as they’re outside all day and only come in for naps and meals and lots of showers lol