I have this constant battle with TV/Screen time as I’m sure most parents do.  We are told it is bad and then sometimes studies say a certain amount is okay, all our mom friends have opposing viewpoints as well as kids of different age groups. It’s all a mess really and sometimes when your kids are screaming and you want to pull your hair out… the TV or Sesame street won’t kill them!

As they get older, it’s going to get scary with cell phones at what age and ultimately how your kids communicate with you.. I’m all about communication so it will be interesting to see how that happens!

My Viewpoint: My kids watch TV, my oldest has watched TV since she was younger as some of the TV has been educational for her.  The amount of time we let her watch TV has varied as she has gotten older but American football is allowed at any time in addition!!   Now all of her TV is in Spanish and she is as fluent as she can be at 3 in both English and Spanish, so I’m pretty sure TV didn’t hurt her.  We will definitely have to manage it going forward!!

Pros: 

• Gives parents a break and time to breath
• If you choose wisely, like Sesame Street or Peppa or Dora – basically any informative show that it teaching them something or talking constantly, it will help them hear languages and ultimately learn
• Singing.. there is a Mother Goose something one on Netflix that is singing songs.. it is great for them, super annoying for parents!

Cons:

• Addictive
• They see us watching it or on our phones all the time and know its important!
• Obviously too much is bad, and TV needs to be limited.
• Throw tantrums when you take it away… this is a sign it needs to be limited or you have created a TV watching monster (we are currently de-monstering our oldest)

Our current allowance of TV: We just moved from our daughter having to be good throughout the day during the week to be able to watch TV at night for 1.5 hours MAX.  She can watch it on the weekends.

NOW: No more TV during the week and she can watch it on the weekends if she is good.

She is so clever though and when she knows she can’t watch TV, she comes up to me and says, “Mommy do you want to watch Romance?”  which the answer is obviously yes, cause I’m so busy!

• Romance is what we call mommy’s time watching TV since 99% of what I watch is “romance”!