How much screen time do your kids get?

[migirl]

My kids generally watch an hour of television every day, usually when I'm trying to do stuff like take a shower or get dinner on the table. I DVR their favorite shows from Disney and PBS, so the stuff they watch is at least fairly educational (I give "Word World" 100% of the credit for teaching my 2yo the alphabet and the phonetic sound of each letter!). Anyway, some days they watch a little more TV and some days it's a little less, but I'd say on average it works out to about an hour a day. Otherwise, the television is off during the daytime.

My 5yo has a Leapster that he loves; he'll pick it up and play with it for an hour here and there, doesn't play with it for days/weeks at a time ... he's definitely not obsessed with it or anything. He also got a bunch of Wii games for his birthday/Christmas (Cars, Diego, etc.) that he's been playing a lot lately ... and by "a lot" I mean maybe an hour a day.

At this point I feel like the amount of screen time he gets is okay, since he seems to be able to self-limit and spends plenty of time playing outside or with his toys or with his brother. But I'm wondering if I should start a precedent now of setting limits on the amount of TV/video games so it doesn't become a bigger problem later on?

How much screen time do your kids get, and how do you regulate how much they get?

[Vanquisher]

A lot. Too much. Entirely too much. I am embarrassed to say. Luckily, however, they seem to still be very bright and undamaged. I doubt any of their tv watching these days is educational.

That said, my son is 13 in a couple days and my daughter is almost 7, so unless they were watching the History Channel, they aren't going to gain a lot in the way of education.

[Michele]

My TV is on all day long...6a to 7p The boys watch some, and play some. I've started limiting Wii time bc Daegan gets frustrated with some games (old Mario). He also has a Leap Frog Scout player that he plays a few times a week. They are also allowed to play on our iPhones and sometimes on my iPad. They also watch stuff on Netflix on the Wii. I used to turn the TV off at meal time, but now it's only off if we are eating dinner as a family and then everyone complains. There will be a LOT of changes when we move. And there will be lots of unhappy people, Russ included..but I hate how much of a focus the TV has become and I hate how much I rely on it to entertain the kids. The only channels we watch are PBS, Nick Jr and Disney....when Russ is home , he lets them watch SpongeBob, DragonBall Z Kai, and stuff like that.

[MrsK]

I hate TV. Actually, I love TV but it's an enormous time suck and I have a hard time tearing myself away from it. DrK doesn't watch much TV but for some inexplicable reason he bought a TV and 1-year cable subscription for his birthday. Now I'd say the TV is on about 3-4 hrs daily. We talk less, get to bed later, waste a lot of time channel surfing, watching re-runs, and passively observing people who disgrace themselves on reality TV shows. On weeknights, this mostly happens after BabyK has gone to bed. During the weekend, the TV is on way too much and I've noticed that BabyK is starting to get sucked in. If I catch him watching, I switch from TV to a kid-appropriate DVD. We like the Scholastic book series on DVD and the muppet show. I'm actively campaigning to have our cable TV plan reduced to only the network and local channels.

[SuzySunshine]

My kids usually watch 30-60 minutes after breakfast and then 30-60 minutes before dinner depending on the day. One days when I've had it its usually on earlier in the afternoon. But we try not to stay home much. A has preschool two mornings/week and we try to do other things on the other mornings. If R and I are the only ones home its not usually on. I only let her watch PBS, NickJr, very few Nick shows and some Disney.

Sometimes I think she gets to much but she's a smart kid and I don't think its rotting her brain. She's also reached the point where she interacts with the shows so I don't feel so bad about letting her watch those.

ETA: Its always on on the weekends, we are big sports fans so we watch a lot on the weekends. The kids don't pay near as much attention when we're not watching a cartoon.

[Ladybug]

It varies, but I'd say we average a movie a day, and sometimes cartoons if I need to get something done and everyone is driving me distraction. We mostly watch movies. I hate commericials with a passion. The volume and speed just bug me and stress me out. I try to talk about the movie's characters and feelings too. It mollifies my mommy TV guilt. I should spend more time reading with them, but I end up using that time to hang out with them in the same room yet catch up on my email, magazines, etc. If a have a sick and cranky kid all bets are off.

[Ladybug]

I think as they get older as long as all their work is done they can unwind for an hour or so however they choose, but I haven't had to battle anything yet.

[Pollyanna]

Like Michele, our tv is on all day. DD3 only watches a few shows and is not really interested in tv, our other kids can watch tv, do computer stuff, or video games as much as they want proving their responsibilities are taken care of. They are usually so busy with activities that they don't have much time for tv and the like. I don't worry too much about it (who am I kidding, I don't worry about it at all), they are good kids, get good grades, and are active in other activities, I am not going to create an issue where there isn't one by assigning a time limit to screen time.

[v-girl]

We don't have cable so the only tv my kids get during the day is PBS or Qubo -- both are educational...for Kenny. He actually leans a lot from it -- especially the word shows.

[Sheherezade]

Way too much. Like others have mentioned, my kids are both doing very well in school and have outside activities. At 14 and 11, I'm not too worried about the future consequences. We don't have cable or an antennae for the TV so there is an economic and energy barrier to watching movies or TV shows. They have to purchase or go through Hulu or the Netflix subscription. Lately, my 14 year old has been addicted to 30 Rock. It's free and there are a million episodes on Netflix -- when he runs out of them, he'll stop watching much until he hears about something else and has to try it out.

As for XBox and computer games, they both seem to get interested when they have something new, play it constantly, beat it and forget about the game system until the next new game comes out.

We don't limit anymore but when they were younger I think they probably only watched an hour a day or less for Mommy downtime. The 14 year old had Barney and my daughter had Dora. Those were the days. They never hit pause and said "Mom. Mom. Mom. Hey, Mom. You've got to see this, Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom? Come see this. It's funny! Mom. Mom. "

[PrincessFiona]

As to TV .... not much at all. We have three TV's in the house: one in our bedroom, one in the downstairs family room, and one in Amanda's room. The only one that has the capacity to get actual TV (as opposed to only playing DVD's) is in our bedroom and if I switch to TV is is to watch the Food Network. The kids will occasionally watch a movie or DVD of TV shows we've picked. I used to have the TV on constantly and then a few years we switched to no TV...I can never go back. Now, I would be miserable if the TV was playing in the background. I cherish the silence!

When the kids get home from school, they get about 1.5 hours of video game or facebook time ... Alex watches Naruto on the computer too. After dinner, they have homework and then bedtime. Sometimes I catch the older kids on Facebook instead of doing homework. We noticed that our older kids were staying on Facebook into the late hours of the night so now that we are in the hotel, Thomas disconnected their internet service from their computer. They can use it to just type for awhile.

I really prefer that the kids play playmobil, draw, practice their instruments or even fight like mad to having television/computer stuff going.

This is a personal preference though...and like I said, I used to have the TV on constantly a few years ago...so no judgment from me.

Kris

[mommax3]

I don't really limit tv time at all anymore.....they are getting busy enough that the issue has kind of taken care of itself. My oldest is gone more than he is home these days due to sports and other activities, so I don't worry about him watching too much tv. If he watches, it is ESPN, football, or the Discovery channel. The other two still enjoy Disney and Nickelodeon, but enjoy
watching HGTV a lot, too, which cracks me up.

Computer time and video game time is another story. Our computers are password protected, so the kids can only get on if I log them in....same for the ipad and my/DH's phone. They get on fairly regularly, but can't do so on their own. Video games are only allowed on weekends and school breaks. I found that I didn't like the climate in our house when video games were in constant use. The competitiveness spilled over into real life and everybody seemed more grumpy. Things are better without them during the week.

[Urowife]

Funny you posted this thread. I recently had to go cold turkey no TV with my DD (she'll be 2 in March). I'd love to be able to let her watch 1 or 2 of her cute shows while I shower or make dinner (or surf the net for downtime), but she can't handle the concept of limiting something yet. No matter how much warning I give her that we're about to say "bye bye" to the TV, she'll throw a fit when I turn it off. If I just don't turn it on at all, she's fine (now that we've gone through the cold turkey phase, that is). She's more "whiney" for attention because the TV isn't on, but at least she's not throwing a huge tantrum when we turn it off.

[DCJenn]

Rarely for TV- I don't watch a lot so he doesn't watch a lot. If he's done with homework and piano practice, I'll let him play on the computer. He's really only ever on Lego.com though so it's ok. He doesn't know about email or any of that stuff yet. On the weekends he often watches movies- it's been Despicable Me since he got it for Christmas.

We got a Wii for Christmas but it's in DC with my husband so that we didn't have to pay to ship it back. Once that gets here, I expect we'll have to lay down some major rules. He'll be off from school by then so we'll see how much it gets played with.

J.

[ladymoreta]

I don't watch a lot of TV when it's just DS and me, but DH turns it on as soon as he gets home, and it's on almost the whole evening. DS doesn't really watch it much, but occasionally he'll look up at it if there's singing or bright colors. I really don't like having it on unless I'm specifically watching something, but DH likes it as background noise.