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We got into a bad habit of allowing it whenever when she was sick. But then she started the screaming and demanding, and I knew that needed to stop. So she watches one episode of something while I make breakfast/lunches in the morning, and sometimes she can watch a bit of a show before bed. Weekends are a little more frequent.
Honestly, we stopped cold turkey for awhile, then reintroduced it only at certain points in the day.
Hope you find a good solution for your family!

She basically knows that we watch Sesame Street after breakfast and then she'll get to watch a bit more with my husband when he comes home from work. When she asks for it at other times, I usually re-direct her to another activity.

@Anagram: This is pretty much us. Things were fine before I got pregnant and then morning sickness hit, followed by the most heinous winter ever. We are actually doing better now that the weather is slightly better, but I have major work to do in dialing back the amount of television we watch.

If it was getting out of control, I would stop it all for a week and then reintroduce when you want. This worked great for is with food.

We do TV-one episode before bed. Sometimes an episode while I finish making dinner. Weekends, we are more chill and totally depends on her mood. We'll play in a totally different room and I hide the remote.

I look at it this way. She loses her shit because she isn't getting Her way. Oh well. She also wants to play in the street but I don't let her!

Figure out what you want to allow and be firm because toddlers will take a mile when you give an inch

I do the same as mentioned above when she starts demanding it - go cold turkey for a week. It's easier for us, I guess because our tv is in the basement.

She always knows before watching tv how many episodes/shows she gets to watch. We are always consistent, and rarely give in to "one more" pleas. This helps curb any tantrums!

I think it helps to have TV only at a certain time of day. That makes it predictable for toddlers. My son (20 months) gets to watch for 30 minutes on most days and it's almost always right before dinner. He might ask at other times but he doesn't completely freak out when I say no (usually). A thing that's helped us is that he mostly watches DVDs (because my family lives in the stone age). With tv, there's always something on next but with the DVD it just goes back to the menu when it's done. Can you use a DVD or DVR a show so that it's more clear when one is all done?

We watch two shows in the morning before breakfast, and two shows after dinner. Those are the times I need quiet and rest, so it works well. And it's a good guideline, because if she asks during the day, I just say, 'when do we watch tv?', and she knows. When it's nicer out we'll do the evening one less, too, as we spend more and more time outside.

I found that doing more than this made my daughter more prone to demanding it and throwing a fit when I told her no. During my recent first trimester, she was getting a lot of extra, and she started being really demanding about it. Reimposing the morning and evening limits was a good choice for everyone, because then she knows what to expect and what the limits are.

We have set times during the day for tv so they know when to expect it and that it is not unlimited.

Yikes... E isn't interested in TV shows but I did make the mistake of letting him watch youtube clips of puppies on my phone. BIG mistake. Lol. I went cold turkey on him cause he was going nuts everytime he saw my phone.... oops. lesson learnt.

On weekdays when we're working, DS usually gets an episode of MM at 630 while I'm cooking dinner.

On wknds, it's on the fly. Sometimes in the AM he'll get 30 minutes while DH and I get ready for the day, sometimes it's none, sometimes it's both in the AM and PM.

Our screentime is more like "youtube time on mommy's phone". He gets 3 short videos in the morning and 3 short 3 minute videos in the evening when he brushes his teeth. That started when he refused to brush his teeth and I somehow needed to transition out of that.... with that said...

Nowadays he seem to want to demand more videos, I am standing my ground for 3 videos each session. In the evening, now he really has to earn it. If he has one time-out that day, he loses one video. Two time-outs then he loses two videos and so forth. And I stuck to my word and if he loses all videos that night, he doesn't get any regardless of how he cries. it seems to work well and it motivates him to stay on his good behavior!

I wonder if you can set a limit to one show a day or two shows a day or xxx minutes of shows a day, and have your child earn it with good behavior / lose it with bad behavior? Does your tv have parental control where it shuts off and couldn't turn back on without the prompt of a password? Then you can set it to play for 20 minutes if she earned 20 minutes that day...etc. You have to explain to her officially one day that this is the new set of rules!

Good luck!

we do two things: 1. if he's watching it on the tv (we have a smart tv with the pbs kids app), we let him watch one or two episodes and he knows that when it's over, we turn it off. 2. if he's watching on the ipad, we set an alarm on our phone and tell him that when the alarm goes off, he has to push the button to turn the ipad off. after a few times doing this, he knew that when the alarm went off, he was done. he still kind of cries sometimes, but he still turns it off!

Yes, we have rules and I impose limits. The main issue we have is that my son is stubborn and it's a war when we have to transition to another activity. So, if he's asking for it, I'll redirect him to something else, but sometimes, I need him to sit in one place for a minute and I'll bend my own rules.