how much tv do they watch?

I didn't let my kids watch any tv until they were 2...then the baby came...and now I feel like I use it a little too much when I need to get things done. I know it won't kill them and we spend PLENTY of time getting out of the house or playing more educational things, but I was thinking about the fact that a lot of the time if we're home and it's rainy, they watch a show in the morning while I'm getting breakfast ready, one when I'm making lunch, sometimes one before nap (but usually that's something interactive like a yoga for kids that we do together or one with music so we dance), and another while I'm making dinner. It doesn't seem like much, but that's 2 hours if they actually sit still for it. Usually they're doing other things, too, but it's on. And sometimes it'll stay on longer if we start playing inside and I forget to turn it off. And then when DH comes home, he puts on sports or something because he likes having background noise, but sometimes they'll sit with him and watch that. It just seems like a lot when you actually add it up, doesn't it?

For the record, my parents owned an electronic store and on the days I had to go to work with them, I watched a LOT of TV, and usually several shows at once (the joy of having many TVs in one place) and I don't think it messed me up so I don't think it's bad, I just like to get them involved in more active and creative things...

 

My kiddos only watch about 20 minutes of TV a night while I am prepping dinner. I GUARANTEE it would be a lot more if I stayed home with them instead of working FT!!

 

The boys don’t watch TV. There are days I get very little done. But we manage.

 

Way too much. 1-2 hours on a good day, more on a bad one. Used to be nothing before 2, but now we live in a bigger house and DS is always getting in trouble, so TV keeps my sanity. I am NOT good though at keeping them entertained myself. For some reason it just bores me to tears when I play with them. I'm probably the worst SAHM ever.

 

At that age (and now) we go days w/o watching TV. (kids that is, DH and I watch after they go to bed)


We do not have cable.

Winter we watch more than in summer- due to lack of getting out when it is VERY cold. Usually an hour or so every other day.

When they are sick- we watch more as well.

We dont have and never have had a 'set' time on when we watch....at 2-3 we often would watch Sesame Street IF we were home at that time AND I remembered! One DD is also VERY sensitive to what we watch so we are limited on selections. We mainly watch Netflix or library DVDs.

I am a SAHM...at age 3 the girls went to preschool for 2 hours TH,T and at age 4 & now they go for 12 hours (M, T, TH, FR 9-11:30). I also started working when they are in school this year.

Then add naps- playtime....there are not enough hours in the day!

We can NOT have it on in the background- it really disrupts their playing and conversations. Plus, it is usually not something I WANT them hearing/listening to anyway.

 

In the summmer we maybe watch it for an hour in the morning, BUT I live in rainy seattle and we are stuck inside. We watch it for at least 1 1/2 hours in the morning (wake up time, and enough time for me to get ready to go), and we watch it after they wake up from their nap (their routine is one movie), and then 20 minutes of ni hao kai lan before bed time.

I know it's horrible -- but I wouldn't get anything done otherwise because if I don't put on tv when I'm getting ready in the morning (for example) it takes us twice as long to get out of the house because they are fighting over toys, etc.

 

I have never been super-strict on the TV watching. Some days they watch none, other days they watch more. As long as they are doing a variety of different things throughout the week, I don't worry about a day here & there when they watch more than I would like.

 

This is very much us as well. My oldest couldn't sit to watch a whole movie until he was 7y and it drove me nuts! What I wouldn't have given for 2 hours of quiet! LOL
The twins are quite like that but they still can't sit through a whole movie. There are a couple shows that they can watch the whole thing but most of those shows are only 20 minutes and they will only sit through one episode. So I don't really worry about how much my kids watch. Some days we are home and some days we are out all day long. So it just depends.

 

I voted "less than 1 hour" for both, but this is really an average. They don't watch TV every day, but sometimes DH will put on a video for 20 minutes while he's preparing dinner (he comes home first) and some days he'll have a game on that the boys will watch for a few.

And on Saturday while he worked I took the boys down into the finished basement and turned Animal Planet's "Puppy Bowl" on the big TV in high def for an hour to conquer the fussiness. :lol:

 

Before they were two, they didn't watch TV. Then they started to watch maybe 1-2 hours when they weren't in school. But, I'm so embarrassed to say that on their off days, they have been known to occasionally watch 3-5 hours in a day (not on school days). When it's cold out, I don't let them go outside as often as I should. We go to their gym/drop in so they have an activity. We on occasion make our way to a kids museum, or go for a short walk if it's not brutal out. When the weather isn't too bad, we'll go to the park or watch airplanes at the observation deck at our airport, but mostly we stay home. We have a fenced in back yard, but since it was snowing so often, I've let my dog's poop pile up a bit. We need to clean that out before they go back outside. Also, our landscapers have been extremely lazy on clearing out our leaves which we paid for and now the yard is covered with old leaves and pine-cones. It's pretty bad right now, so I don't feel too comfortable letting them out in the back yard just yet. My mother just gave me some comments that kind of hurt my feelings. She thinks they just stay at home and watch TV. I'll admit it's been more often during the cold winter days, but she seemed to forget when it was warm out we were outside every day and rarely was the TV on. I plan to go back to that once the weather gets warmer. While it's cold out, not much around that they can do for free. Not to mention, one of us usually has a cold and that spreads around quick. No point being out in the cold while feeling ill. We do have things to do in the house, but that doesn't always hold their attention for too long. Some days, they are easily amused without the TV on. GREAT! We won't turn on the TV for them. They will often turn it on themselves and with twins, that's hard to avoid once they learn how to do something. I have not asked them if they want to watch something. It's them that request it or they just turn it on themselves. No way to cover the TV's controls either without spending a fortune on a new entertainment center, and that's not going to happen. I let them request and watch something. They have watched a couple of movies here and there, but usually it's PBS kids or something like that, so they don't watch stuff like American Idol or the news or some sitcom. I try to make it educational at least so there's something positive about that.

 

Like Tina, I don't over regulate it, but the tv is always on here. If it looks like they are zoning out and not playing, I turn it off. Today, the tv is on, my 4.5 yr old is sitting beside me watching it, but the twins are busy playing in their bedroom (aka probably destroying it! :lol

 

On weekdays, 10 minutes in the car on the way home from daycare.

On weekends, we usually watch an hour to give them enforced quiet time since they don't nap anymore. Sometimes, DH will let them watch another hour while I'm at the grocery on Saturday.

But we work. We don't have a TV on the main floor--just in the basement family room. I was home with them Monday afternoon and Tuesday because they were sick, and I had work I HAD to get done. So they watched probably 5-6 hours each day those two days. You do what you have to do.

 

My 2 yr olds really don't care about the tv. They do stop and look at the screen once in a while but to have them sit down and actually stay there and watch, not happening and I am ok with that!! I got my 5 yr old too involved when he was younger as a sanity saver and now all he wants to do is watch tv. I do limit how much he watches. He gets an hour in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon unless the twins are up from their nap and they are all playing nicely together.

If a few weeks go by and we haven't watched much tv at all, then I will declare a day Movie day and watch movies all morning. I actually cannot wait till Spring so we can be outside a lot more and the tv will stay off more too.

I do notice my 5 yr olds attitude and behavior is better when we really limit tv time. I am hoping to get that through to a good friend of mine b/c her 4 kids watch so much tv and she has a hard time with their behavior.

 

This is my outlook too. We watch tv in the morning and at night, and sometimes after naps if they wake up fussy, but we are out and about almost everyday DOING things. They have been waking up earlier and earlier these days (sometimes 5 a.m.!) and I turn the TV on before I am barely functioning--I'm thankful for the TV.

 

mine are little zombies in front of the tv. UGH! I don't make it a habit, and we didn't really have them watch much before 2yo. now we have a selection of DVDs that we choose from and most of the programs are just 20-30 min. so the only get 1 or 2 programs a day if I really need them to sit still and stay out of the kitchen or such.

though, like pp said, I was home this week b/c the nanny was sick and I was trying to work via my laptop, so some mornings I hit play again a time or two!

I just try to see if they can have something educational and I need to get the kids yoga dvd out again, that was a fun one too! I don't like that it's so addicting to me and them to just pop in the video. I'd like to 'train' them a bit more to just play independently and I don't think I can do that if just keep popping in the viedo so I try for other play activities... playdoh at the table etc.

i voted under 1 hr a day.

 

For us it depends on if it is a school day or not. If we are out of the house, they watch very little maybe 30 minutes to an hour at most. On days that I stay home with them, they watch a little more probably 3 total if I am being honest. BUT...I really don't think it is that big of a deal. They are not glued to the TV 24/7 and it is certainly not every day of the week. ardon:

 

Mine are allowed to watch 1 30 minute show in the morning. I usually wake up with them in my bed so we flip a show on while I peel my eyes open and then spend a few minutes in bed on my phone (facebook ,email, words with friend etc).

They are allowed to watch another 30 minute show in the evening (usually close to bedtime).

thats it.

DH and I do watch TV but generally after they are in bed. Otherwise we have the ipod on a lot for music.

DS doesnt care nearly as much about tv as DD. She keeps track of how many shows she has watched in a day and constantly reminds you if she hasnt reached her 2 show limit LOL

 

I like to have the TV on as I am doing stuff in the house so it is pretty much always on, although not on kid shows. They rarely, rarely stop to watch it.

 

We didn't have a tv in the house until my oldest was 3 years old and then it was very, very limited, both in time and content. I sometimes think that was a mistake. He is now 10 and super sensitive, media and otherwise. Perhaps if he had watched mindlessly as a child he would be more desensitized?

So while I was once very critical of people who had their kids watching tv daily or weekly I'm up in the air on it at this point and only limit it because otherwise they wouldn't do all the other stuff. As I now tell my 10 year old, "Screen time isn't bad. It is the time it eats up that is the problem."

The line between school work, research and "playing" online gets blurry as the kids get older.

 

We don't have cable or regular TV access, so anything we watch we stream online. I find that our house is more peaceful and we get so much more done (and I handle the girls better) if the TV stays off. I let them watch an episode of Kipper once a week, which they LOVE, but other than that, we listen to music for background noise or we just have a quieter house. My DH and I will catch up on shows after they go to bed a few times a week but not every day with that either. The less TV, the better - for the whole family.