Kid turned 1. What’s next?

[stassit]

Boy turned 1. Crawls like he’s straight out of the poltergeist and will walk with the walked but not on his own. Still working on solids but we cosleeping and he’s teething and still breast feeding so it’s going slowly.

My biggest point of concern is TV. When he was younger I wasn’t too concerned about letting Sesame Street just play while we hung out in the living room… but now he’s into cars and it’s a mix of cars 1/2/3 and Sesame Street. A couple hours a day easy. And it’s gone from background noise to something he actually likes to watch. I’m a stay at home dad and the allure of just chilling with him is definitely there…

How concerned should I be? What else could I be doing? I don’t wanna squander the opportunity our circumstances have given us. I realize how absolutely lucky we are to be okay with 1 parent home full time let alone it being me.

Just don’t want to fail my kid.

Edit: holy crap. Dads show up. Thank you, dads!

 

[raphelmathew]

@stassit I think you’re leaning on the TV too hard. It is unlikely that your kid will get tired of TV. You could watch 6 hours a day and he’ll still be fine with it. You can tell yourself all you want that it’s educational content and it talks about emotions and numbers and words, but 1 year olds don’t need that. 2 year olds don’t need that. Infants and toddlers need motor control, action reaction, textures, reaction time. You get zero of those from the TV.

One thing that is stupid but really helpful is make a list of games you find online or in books or come up with yourself. Have that list accessible either on your phone or on a piece of paper taped to the wall (we literally did that). When you don’t know what to do, try something from the list. My wife found one that was putting packing tape between two legs of a chair and having our son place ball pit balls on the tape. He did that for over an hour. Take strips of paper and make tunnels for cars to go under. It’s exhausting, trust me. Tv is so easy and relaxing and cuddly, but your kid isn’t getting anything from it

 

[aziluv5]

@raphelmathew We're approaching 3 and do about 30 minutes of screen time a day. I'm shocked at how much more ok I am with games than shows. Dude just turns into a zombie during shows, but with games you can see him thinking and trying at least. Plus, it's at least moderately engaging so he gets tired of them after a while. We do the hungry caterpillar game and the pbs kids games.

 

[raphelmathew]

@aziluv5 Good tips for the games. We’re approaching 3 as well and while he loves playing Kirby dream buffet, he can’t do the controls at all. Will check out those games.

 

[nannergurl14]

@aziluv5 The hungry caterpillar game is a favorite here, the only mobile game I have ever spent money on.

 

[aziluv5]

@nannergurl14 Once they get bored of that, they can move on to the next Team 17 classic, Worms Armageddon

 

[daviddeikun]

@raphelmathew Trying the packing tape idea tonight lol. Sounds fun

 

[christianreader]

@raphelmathew Yep, kids will never tire of electronics. As tough as it can be to find the energy some days, taking the kid out to places, activities, and doing different things at home is huge for his development and social skills.

I was holding off showing my kid video games and Nintendo stuff, but he found it out anyways through his cousins and other kids - now everything is about Pokémon and Mario. And that’s fine, but the wife and I work to make sure it’s not the only thing he does.

 

[ramblerambler]

@raphelmathew One thing that helps me fill time with a toddler is a weekly routine of outings with some novelty built in for myself. Ex: Monday at the nearby park, Tuesday Costco, Wednesday library story time, Thursday adventure (zoo, beach, meet up with a friend), Friday backyard. The set routine helps me avoid the pull of the couch.

 

[faxlist]

@raphelmathew Please share your activity/games list

 

[gankutsuou]

@raphelmathew I would say the only exception is small doses of Mrs. Rachel's baby learn to talk videos.

 

[raphelmathew]

@gankutsuou Disagree

Learning-based television series has been shown to have an effect on vocabulary size for kids aged 3-5, but there have been no studies showing any benefit’s of television for kids under 3. I would argue that books and songs also have the same effect on vocabulary as television might for kids of that age, but that’s not included in the study.

 

[gankutsuou]

@raphelmathew Very interesting ty. My experience is simply anecdotal. Both mom and I are very talkative people. This is probably a more plausible explanation for a little guy being verbal early.

 

[jess90]

@stassit Next is 2.

 

[immanuelsmoey]

@stassit I'm at 9 months and SAHD. We do 0 screen time. He just crawls all around the house getting into stuff and me trailing after him as he explores and touches stuff. It is exhausting but I read reddit and books and stuff. I try not to be on my phone all the time but it's hard, that's what I feel guilty about. We still play a lot and he gets lots of focused time but no TV.

Goal is to keep him off creens until at least 2 and then maybe in a super limited way.

Still figuring it out.

 

[wordsb1truth]

@immanuelsmoey

read reddit and books and stuff. I try not to be on my phone all the time but it's hard, that's what I feel guilty about.

This 100%. I want to model decent habits and my phone use... well that's hard especially as I'm also trying to do work (heavily invested in markets). I try not to use the phone when we're engaged in activities, but when she's playing by herself, I'm on the phone. Ugh.

 

[immanuelsmoey]

@wordsb1truth F

 

[stassit]

@immanuelsmoey We’re going cold turkey on tv in this house now. I screwed up. Hopefully we can work to make up for it and have no long term detriments. Good job on you, dad.

 

[immanuelsmoey]

@stassit You'll be fine. Plenty of kids get planted in front of a TV and end up fine, it's just better for them not as it improves chances and stuff. Every kid and every situation is different. But yeah good luck!

The main reason I don't like it is because the blue light from screens blocks melatonin production, that's the reason everyone is like (oh no blue light) and I want little buddy to take naps haha

 

[georgiabelle]

@stassit Don't be so hard on yourself! I have twin girls that are 3.5 and by any standard they get too much TV screen time, but we don't have tablets and they don't use our phones. They absolutely have learned stuff from watching educational shows like Sesame Street. What we try to do is limit the junk TV they watch, like the garbage for kids on YouTube. I love spending a rainy Sunday watching old Disney movies or Little Bear with my girls, it makes for really nice bonding time. They still love to play outside and have huge imaginations when they play with their toys, and like other dads have said, they don't turn into zombies around a screen like a lot of kids with no screen time tend to do.