How much TV does your toddler get ?

TylerDurden

Distinguished Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2005
Messages
4,181
Reaction score
654
Points
1,027
My daughter is 19 months old, we try to keep her away from much TV, she does get about half an hour a day though (never unattended), generally cbeebies when changing her nappy etc (keeps her still :laugh:)
I've read that under 2 year olds shouldn't have any TV time whatsoever, how much TV time does your toddler actually get.
 
We used to let our son watch an episode or two of Waybaloo after he finished his dinner so he could relax and digest. This probably started at 1 year give or take. That was the only time he was allowed to watch TV until he got older. After 2 years it went up and if my wife is sick he might spend hours infront of the TV. It's not all the time so I don't really see the harm. I'd say judge by how attached they become to it. If they throw tantrums when they're not allowed to watch then it's probably not a good idea to let them watch too much. If they ask and then don't mind doing something else if you say no, then it's probably a healthy attachment or appreciation.
 
I can't remember what sort of time ours spent watching TV at 19 months old, but I'm pretty sure it was more than 1/2 an hour.
I think they used to watch certain shows (Dora/Balamory IIRC) a couple of times a day.
And, as bugbait says, there were certain times you were glad to plonk themk down and let them watch quite a lot (illness etc.)
I don't see any signs of harm in either of them, they're both still very into making arts and crafts and playing outside etc.
 
30 mins or so per day during the week, same at weekends unless they're feeling off.

It's all iplayer stuff via MediaPortal's excellent OnlineVideos so no ads and they get to choose a couple of progs. Alphablocks is phonics in disguise so fairly educational!
 
I can't remember what sort of time ours spent watching TV at 19 months old, but I'm pretty sure it was more than 1/2 an hour.
I think they used to watch certain shows (Dora/Balamory IIRC) a couple of times a day.
And, as bugbait says, there were certain times you were glad to plonk themk down and let them watch quite a lot (illness etc.)
I don't see any signs of harm in either of them, they're both still very into making arts and crafts and playing outside etc.

And that's the gauge for us in a lot of things. Ok, my son may go on his x box quite a lot but he goes to football training and matches 4 times a week. Then does 2 after school sports clubs and plays football every lunchtime. Every chance he gets when the weather is good he is out on his bike or down the park.
My daughter is the same but it's gymnastics and arts and crafts. It's all about balance. If they just wanted to sit in front of a screen all the time it would then be an issue
 
To be honest you can begrudge these shows for being somewhat educational my daughter learned to count with numberjacks at 18 months. She's now almost 3 and never gets glued to cbeebies although it is on in the background whilst she's pottering around the house on her bike or colouring.

We encourage learning and do lots of reading with her. She is coming on leaps and bounds. I can't tell you how sick I am of beauty and the beast must of watched it 18 times this month alone ;)

She even knows how to find it via the plex app on the tv.

But I'd say each child is different and you just monitor by behaviour. Our LO never throws tantrums when we turn it off. She loves being outdoors I feel bad for her with the run of awful weather we are having. 10yrs of it they say! :(
 
Hardly any, she doesn't have a favourite program, cartoon or character she just cruises around the house causing havoc nattering away..
 
My daughter, who is 2 1/2 in August, watches a bit of Cbeebies in the evening, when we are calming her down before. She still loves a bit of Baby TV whilst she's having her milk
 
My 1yr old daughter doesn't watch any children's TV, the TV tends to be on all day in the main living area but she ignores it for the most part unless an advert with catchy music comes on in which case she starts dancing.
 
Wow, I feel like a bad parent. The TV is on Nick JR all day in our house :rolleyes:
 
Too much unfortunately.

Our 2 and a half year old loves TV she has it on all the time and will happily sit through movie after movie at the weekend while we do jobs around the house. She watched the Lion King 4 times on Saturday :facepalm:
 
Too much unfortunately.

Our 2 and a half year old loves TV she has it on all the time and will happily sit through movie after movie at the weekend while we do jobs around the house. She watched the Lion King 4 times on Saturday :facepalm:

Welcome to the bad parents club :D
 
i`m also the bad parent :) without tv 2 years old demon could kill you :) in our home its about 1,5 h per day if he is in preschool :) and he watch : george, lilo and stich and mickey mouse club house :) and something about talking dog named martha :)

My kids watch the same amount as yours minus the comma! :laugh:
 
My now 9 step daughter used to be glued to the lounge TV from the moment she woke up and eventually, lethargically slithered downstairs, then again once she got in from school and eventually went to sleep. She was 7 at this point.

Of course, once my "rig" was installed, all the kids channels were pin blocked (AKA my Sky HD box doesn't work properly) and she had to watch in her own room - but if things weren't kept in line appropriately (respect for her mother and school work) - the tuner box was removed from her room. Once for as long as 3 months!!

She now tends to just use it for background noise when it's bed time.
 
My 2yr old seems to be loving the Disney classics at the minute. She has been allowed to have the iPad to watch them whilst settling down for bed. I think that qualifies me for bad dad club.

In my defence I refuse to allow her a tv on there till at least 5yrs of age.
 
depends what the occasion, no more than 2 hours a day, because when we go out, they want my phone or ipad
 
I'm a terrible parent!

In my house the telly is on all day. When they wake up they stick it on and watch before breakfast (it is the school holidays after all) then its on in the background whilst they are playing and doing stuff etc.
They don't eat in front of it (too much of a distraction) and sometimes after lunch they might sit down for a movie, if the missus is having a break from cooking / cleaning / making up DIY jobs for me to when I get home....


When I was growing up and it was just my dad and I in the house, we didn't have a TV!!!! So when I got a bit older and got one, I went a bit OTT and would watch any old crap for hours and hours. My kids exposure to it means they don't have the same relationship with it that I did.
tree
There are some programs that they love (Peppa Pig is like crack for kids, Curious George, Tree Foo Tom etc) and they will always do a tools down and sit and watch so we sometimes use that to our advantage if we want them to calm down for a bit.
 
TV isn't on at all during the day & at Weekends, only the evenings between 17:00 & 18:30 for Cbeebies bedtime hour - Waybaloo / In The Night Garden.

He (16 Months old) loves both of them [Opening credits especially] but is generally completely disinterested in all other television programs, bar the weather girl on ITV's Daybreak, and just ignores it.
 
I'm a terrible parent!

In my house the telly is on all day. When they wake up they stick it on and watch before breakfast (it is the school holidays after all) then its on in the background whilst they are playing and doing stuff etc.
They don't eat in front of it (too much of a distraction) and sometimes after lunch they might sit down for a movie, if the missus is having a break from cooking / cleaning / making up DIY jobs for me to when I get home....


When I was growing up and it was just my dad and I in the house, we didn't have a TV!!!! So when I got a bit older and got one, I went a bit OTT and would watch any old crap for hours and hours. My kids exposure to it means they don't have the same relationship with it that I did.
tree
There are some programs that they love (Peppa Pig is like crack for kids, Curious George, Tree Foo Tom etc) and they will always do a tools down and sit and watch so we sometimes use that to our advantage if we want them to calm down for a bit.

I'm a terrible parent as well... the TV is on pretty much all day in my house as well. It's just one of those devices that is always on anyway.
My son is 2 years old and doesn't actually watch it all day though (even when I have got his favourite film on)
I will add that as soon as I see that it is a decent kind of day, I will make sure that he/ we are outside (have a huge fenced/ walled garden) and he is happy enough to just come and go as he pleases and he more times than not he will choose to be outside.

I actually think some of the programmes on TV are doing a great job of teaching him better than me! :devil::D
 
Sorry, but I think parking a toddler in front of the idiot box all day is pretty much an absolute no-no and does them no favours at all. An hour or so daily is more than enough. They should be playing with stuff, drawing, painting etc.

<gets down off soap box>
 
I'm a terrible parent as well... the TV is on pretty much all day in my house as well. It's just one of those devices that is always on anyway.
My son is 2 years old and doesn't actually watch it all day though (even when I have got his favourite film on)
I will add that as soon as I see that it is a decent kind of day, I will make sure that he/ we are outside (have a huge fenced/ walled garden) and he is happy enough to just come and go as he pleases and he more times than not he will choose to be outside.

I actually think some of the programmes on TV are doing a great job of teaching him better than me! :devil::D

On all day........why, it's mostly crap??
 
my son watches many hours of tv but his imagination and speech are way ahead of what is the average for a 3yr old, rather than tv he watches older cartoons that i watched as a kid on youtube, as long as you interact and read to them as much as you can, and take them out everyday i wouldn't worry about a few hours a day of telly, i would worry more about the lack of imaginative children's telly these days
 
My daughter loves watching youtube on the ipad she loves watching kinder egg suprise things and play doh. Her creative play away from that is excellent and she is way ahead for her age. We don't actually have the TV on during the evening that much anymore because by the time we get home and have eaten we don't get much time with our daughter as it is so the tv is redundant.
 
FWIW, There is significant evidence that suggests introducing TV/Movies at too early an age increases the risk of ADHA problems later on. From some of the reading we've done, it's possible that this may be related to fast moving images and scene changes which aren't naturally occurring phenomena that our eyes/brains have evolved to deal with when they are in the critical stages of development. There is also research that indicates slower language development even if children were shown DVDs and/or shows supposedly designed to help them develop.

So, we don't even have the news on while our daughter is awake and she won't be getting any children's TV for a few years yet. Can't say I miss it too much as we're always busy with our daughter anyway.

Here's one paper on the subject; Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children and a pop science article; Letting Infants Watch TV Can Do More Harm Than Good
Just about any reliable pediatrics source will recommended restricting TV access to infants.
 
Last edited:
We recently started putting our baby in front of the TV for 10 minutes so we can eat dinner together. As soon as her eye catches the image she stops crying and becomes hooked like she's on drugs, you can see her eyes darting all over the place and she makes funny noises.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom