@albert123 My kid has had an embarrassingly high amount of screen time since he was 2 (thanks, Covid) and he’s 6 now and can name every country’s flag, is reading on a 4th grade level, is doing multiplication, knows a ton about science and history and is an “especially abstract thinker for his age” according to this teacher. His teachers assumed we brought him to museums all the time and got him out of school tutoring. Nope, we just let him watch YouTube for hours with light supervision and a lot of parental controls. He has pretty reasonable behavior for a 6 year old and is willing to put the iPad away when asked. He doesn’t seek out inappropriate content (yet.) He also still loves to play pretend, soccer, hide and seek, and create elaborate art projects (including some pretty cool videos/video editing on the iPad!) If he only cared about the iPad/YouTube I’d be much more concerned.
All the things I was able to do for work during Covid to keep my job secure and all the rest I may get when I’m sick or all the time I have to keep our household running or god forbid, the time I get to sit on the couch and just watch a home design show while dinner is cooking without entertaining him has been 100% worth for MY particular family.
Everyone has different circumstances/challenges. You do what works for you and your family and while you might be worried that setting precedence for things is going to be a huge downfall, you’d be surprised how flexible kids can be when you lay down new ground rules if you really need to.
We let them watch like 5-10 mins of an educational YouTube video during teeth brushing and getting ready in the morning and at bedtime, but other than that it’s no screens during the weekend.
And then we let them go ham on the tv on the weekend. Morning noon and night if they want. They’ll often ask me to turn it off so they can focus on playing.
If they ever have tantrums about tv, then I tell them we’re taking a break from it.
I’m not personally worried about it. I was a latchkey kid in the 90s and raised on incredibly inappropriate tv for children (watching Married w Children daily, I had Stand By Me on vhs lol what were my parents thinking?!)
I feel like as long as they can function in the world without it, are getting exercise and exposure to outside life and have plenty of time for imaginative play and everything then I can be lax about it
@metalgreymon Slightly off from the main thread but I am also a child who watched Stand By Me a lot - whenever we stayed at my grandparents house it was either that or Fantasia and we always picked stand by me. I guess the logic was this movie has kids as the main characters, it’s a kids movie. Not great!
Now looking back, I’m like WOW, I should NOT have been watching that as like a 5 or 6 year old. We only had like 10 vhs tapes and my parents refused to pay for cable so it was in rotation constantly
@albert123 Maybe he’ll grow up to work in television or become an animator/motion designer!
Honestly, this all sounds pretty normal. My daughter loves TV in the morning, and I relish some quiet time while I make coffee. She’s also an early riser like your kiddo! I only let her watch shows that we both like.
We like Winnie The Pooh (animated movies, not the crappy series) especially Tigger, Super Simple Songs, Bumble Nums — anything with ghosts, monsters or Halloween is also her favorite (but I do those mostly with songs).
@albert123 It seems like a lot to me and I would definitely place some limits on it if I were you, however we don’t really do screen time for a number of reasons. I don’t think that adding a tablet is the answer though- I feel like those are more addictive, portable (and he may start asking for it when out and about), and I’d have additional concerns about eyesight etc if he ends up using the tablet as much as he’s watching tv.
@albert123 My 4yo has pretty severe ADHD and loves screen time. He's off the charts smart and will always choose going outside to play/going to the park but his calm down/self regulating time is usually watching TV. We use an iPad when we're out, mostly when I know he's going to have to be "contained" for any length of time.
I don't stress it, kiddo is happy and everything runs smoothly with what we do. I think it's great you're teaching your child how to self care, clearly his preferred relaxing self care is watching TV. My kiddo likes a nice warm bath and to be lotioned up as self care.
@albert123 My kids love TV too, particularly my oldest. I say use it to your advantage. My kid earns it by doing chores/being respectful, and it works, he does his chores and is respectful (mostly). It's great how much it motivates him
@albert123 My 3yo likes to ask for tv, and we allow him tv time for breaks bc he doesn’t nap and sometimes he, too, needs a minute. We do not do ANY phone or table time, and most days we have strict tv limits and he does well. Today, post birthday party exhaustion and when he was sobbing he wanted to take a nap at 11am/ we knew he needed a break, so he set himself up a quiet time area and rewatched some of his favorite paw patrol episodes. It’s all about balance, and how the child is responding to the stimulus.
@albert123 Eh, I was raised on TV. If I had to pick my poison for my kids, it would be TV vs YouTube or social media. I know he’s young for those but just saying. I see a lot of 3 year olds hooked on the tablets and I think it’s not great for their behavior or attention span.
