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I'm like you and we never really regulated it, but it is also one of our new year goals, less screentime/more family time. Sadly, she's still adjusting to not on-demand screentime, so we are battling the "BUT I WANT TO WATCH A SHOW" tantrums. I'm really hoping soon she will realize playing games/dance parties/reading/ect is more fun together than an episode of Jake or Sofia!

Yeah I have to limit during the week or else T (3.5) demands it and his behavior is definitely worse with it. I try for none in the mornings and then just a show or two in the afternoon when his brother is napping. He gets plenty on the weekends with dad (they almost always watch a movie one weekend day). I never turn on the tv specifically for R (13 months) but he definitely enjoys at least the first 5 mins of it and always wants the iPhone!!

I haven't noticed much of a behavior change. I give the kids a little bit of screen time when they wake up and again while I'm cooking dinner in the evening. On some days we're so busy that we forget about screen time, and I haven't noticed any major changes.

For our (almost) 4 yr old, we notice a HUGE change in her behavior dependent on how much screentime she gets. The less screentime she gets, the much better she is. I think some of it has to do with how she starts to reenact the stuff she sees on the shows... but she's more drawn to the annoying/whining/misbehaving.

yep! i notice a difference! we're not against screentime either but i know if dd gets too much she'll be whiny/cranky throughout the day. not sure what it is but we do limit screentime because of that.

we limit it completely during the week because he is in preschool full time as we both work full time. But he gets a fair share on weekends. depends on what we are doing. so it is actually easy to see the effect it has on his behaviour (and it is not a good one!). and over the recent holidays/long weekends, he got more than usual with the extra days off, and then had 2 mornings in a row where he had a huge tantrum crying for the ipad. We decided we need to limit it again on weekends.

Yes. I notice the difference in behavior. Currently we let LO watch some in the morning while we are getting ready to get us all out of the house on time. And in the evening when we are cooking dinner. All in all 30 min - 1 hr. On the weekends she watches an hour in the morning. What I would like to lessen are the additional weekend hours. And my question to all of you ideas are some responses you say. We get a lot of tantrums (2.9 yrs old) - I want to teach her sometimes you can watch and sometimes you can't and when you can't you don't get upset. It's a treat. How do I get a 2 year old to know that?! LOL (Sorry to thread jack?).

@Bao: that would be a huge cut for us too! So I totally understand. It is one of my goals for 2016 to cut our family screentime drastically, but I'm having trouble getting started. Any tips? LO #2 is pretty much in control right now. He's a pretty good kid overall, but I'll be interest to see how he changes when we cut out the screentime.

Yes sometimes--only in the mornings though. If he has screen time too early, as one of the first things he does, he is much more resistant to doing anything else--getting dressed having breakfast, getting out of the house, etc. If he has more than 1 show in a row, he also gets upset when it is over.

@Rockies11: it's almost like it zombifies him--causes inertia, and makes him want to just lie on the couch and do nothing. It makes him seem tired, which makes him crankier.

@Munchkin: I view it as any other treat--it's ok for them to get upset when you say no, because it's something they want. the tantrum is their emotional response, and that's ok. If you plan to do screen time on the weekends as a regular thing, it might be helpful to have it scheduled into your day so she knows when to expect it, versus not being sure when/if it's coming and therefore maybe the unpredictability is causing her to get more upset? Just an idea.

We don't really give DS personal screen time unless he's not feeling well or I need some downtime from his hyper mood on the evenings I solo parent or he asks to go upstairs and watch a movie in the movie room. But he normally only watches about 30 minutes before he's ready to go back downstairs and play. I'm okay with his current screen time. I just have to make sure nothing is too violent going on, otherwise, he starts mimicking the behavior and yea.. no bueno! He's 2.5.

The more he gets tv, the more he whines for it. Every so often we'll end up doing some Daniel Tiger episodes for a few nights in a row. I'm pregnant and sometimes nauseous and exhausted and it's easy to just turn it on while DH throws together dinner. And for a while it's fine, but then it turns into every time we're in the living room he whines and begs for "more Daniel".

But I haven't noticed more bad behavior in general or more tantrums. Just demands/crying/tantrums around wanting more if he's used to getting it. After a couple days he stops asking and then he's fine.