T.V. in living room with newborn, is this bad?

[zman0101]

We have a large tv in our living room, and we have a small house. Lately I have been noticing my 3 month old gazing at the tv and sometimes she seems distracted by it. My sister is firmly against any television. However, my mom sees nothing wrong with it and says, “we had a tv going on in our house for background noise all the time and they can see faces and colors and can learn from it”. I’m so torn of my own opinion on if it’s okay to have television on around my baby. I needed to take a shower last week and played Miss Rachel while she was under the gym and she was laughing and smiling and loved it! But again, I’ve read it’s not recommended for children under the age of 2 to have any screen time. Thoughts/opinions/experiences would be greatly appreciated!

 

[paulalex]

@zman0101 I just want to tell you that I made the same exact post when my son was born, and a few people gave me a hard time asking this. It was literally my first Reddit post lol.

So a newborn can't retain anything from TV, but time the TV is on is not spent talking to the baby. As long as you're making an effort to talk to them, you're fine. Since they're not retaininganything, you don't even need to keep out kid specific at that age.

My son is 17 months and I try to have the TV on less now than I did when he was a newborn because I'd rather him be engaged in other activities. I turn a kid's TV show on him for maybe twice a week and he's still ahead on milestones despite that.

 

[zman0101]

@paulalex Oh thank you for that.
Lol. Some people are ruthless with their opinions… I brace myself before I post anything now. That’s reassuring to hear. It’s not just about TV, it’s about what we are also doing with them when they aren’t watching it!

 

[conservativemom55]

@zman0101 Parenting is full of people who are insanely judgmental + people half ass understanding the one or two study conducted and treating the abstract like gospel