Hellobee Boards

Up until now, I was just winging it - a little bit here, a little bit there.

Now I'm starting to get a "routine" of sorts. He has breakfast, then I stick him in the pack n play with lots of toys and Elmo on in the background while I clean, unpack (we just moved), or just have coffee and sit on the couch.

This is usually for about an hour, but he's definitely not watching the TV the entire time - playing with his toys and looking at books in the PnP too. I prefer having a schedule when he knows he has screen time, because then I don't hear "Elmo!" as much throughout the rest of the day

I SAH and T is very interested in TV. He will sit and watch an entire movie...so I do have to limit it or else he would just watch and watch. We went through a stage about a month ago when he freaked out after his show was over so I cut all screen time for a week and then reintroduced it with rules (I'm 32 weeks pregnant so no screen time is unrealistic at this point!) - ONE SHOW, no crying when it's done, and it's a treat not an expectation.

He often asks for one in the morning while I'm making breakfast and sometimes I derail him and have him help me cook. If he doesn't have a show then, then I am more lenient later in the day. If he wakes from his nap cranky he has one then or when I'm making dinner. On days he goes to school (9-3) we don't have time for one in the morning, but I will let him watch a few shows when he gets home because he doesn't nap at school and needs some down time.

I try to allow no more than 2 shows a day (so, 40 mins of screen time). But there are days like yesterday when he got to watch a movie (Frozen) because I was having contractions and needed to rest. So, we have loose rules and there are days when he gets more (Sunday football for example - though it's usually on in the background and not on specifically for him).

ETA: He's 2.5 and always has been very interested in TV

Ehh. I'm not as vigilant about monitoring her screenscreen time as I should be. She usually gets 30 minutes to an hour of "her shows" when she wakes up & while we eat breakfast. Then I usually have on a show but the tv goes off by 830 every morning (she usually gets up around 7.) Sometimes she gets afternoon TV &on Fridays I keep it on a lot more & even record stuff for her to watch when we get back from errands because I love all the Halloween themed cartoons lol I'm sure from now until Christmas she will be getting more screen time than usual but I can't help myself. I love holiday specials

I use a timer when we use screentime, primarily with the ipad, he could watch You Tube videos about vehicles for hours.

As for TV, we only do Disney Junior, I find the shows are separated into 15 minute segments, more or less and it works because his attention span for TV is less than it is for the ipda.

We don't schedule screentime though, as in, between 10-10:15. It just kind of happens when it happens.

It is pretty scheduled right now. If we are home and I am solo, I might let them watch a show while I get dinner together. I have them clean up the playroom and then they know they can watch a show. It seems to work well. It gives everyone a bit of downtime during the part of the day when the kids are getting tired and may start misbehaving.

D gets 30 minutes of tv after dinner, before bed. Usually an episode of Bubble Guppies, Micky Mouse Clubhouse, or 1/2 hour of Planes. He's in daycare all day, so no screentime there. On Saturdays, we're usually out and about or playing, but if we really need to get something done and he's being particularly curious, we might put on Planes or Nemo to keep him occupied for a bit. Sundays he gets a bit more screentime because we have football ("buttball!") on all day, but it's like background noise to him most of the time. Occasionally he'll look up, yell "Yay, buttball!" or "Yay, touchdown," but he doesn't really pay much attention to it.