Screen time poll

[stringy]

How much screen time do your kids get on a weekday (average, i realize not all weekdays are the same).

Does it differ on weekends?

its a poll.

[mc13]

Definitely so much that I don’t count. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Our tv is always on in the background. No shame in it. My kids still play, go outside, and read books all while the tv is running in the background.

[charlotte]

Weekdays are an hour or less simply because they’re not home much. They generally watch a show sometime between showers/dinner/bed unless we have an extra-curricular activity that evening.

On weekends it’s so much I don’t count. They are each allowed to play on a tablet during “quiet time” (RIP nap time) and my oldest is usually allowed to have the tablet for one hour before going to sleep on weekend nights. During the day the TV is on a lot but like mc13, they’re not necessarily sitting down watching.

[sarenu]

TV is usually dedicated to weekends. But my kids are zombies when it is on.

Maybe and hour on Tuesday’s and Thursdays if the weather is horrible. We just don’t have the time for it.

[milano]

I voted "so much I don't count". TV is usually off in the morning until they are totally ready for school. No ipads in the morning either. After school they watch TV or play Nintendo until dinner then we generally encourage them to play upstairs until bedtime (no TV up there). However, M doesn't have school TTH and that's when I accomplish things so it's not usual for her to be in front of some sort of screen most of those 2 mornings. Weekends I don't limit much either, but my kids are happy to do other things that don't involve screens so of that ever changes I would re-evuate.

Typing this out makes us sound very structured but we really aren't and my kids definitely watch way more TV than many of their IRL friends.

[stringy]

Yea if the TV is on, my kids are staring at it and not engaged in anything else. Even if its like boring grownup sports or something.

It feels like anytime we get home they immediately want a screen, and we pull them off for dinner and they are back (or trying to and we have to fight).

So, yea I'm gonna start working on an hour or less during the week barring sickness or a family movie on fridays or something.

[rugger]

I voted 60-90 min, and I'd say it's closer to the 60min mark. The TV is rarely on. They have iPads for school that they play games on sometimes, but we do a lot of card games as a family, so not much screen time on weekdays for them.

[tj]

I voted less than an hour. We don’t have time during school days usually. But if the kids finish dinner in a timely manner, we will sit down after dinner and all watch a show together.

[sarenu]

Mar 2, 2022 8:54:40 GMT -6 stringy said:

Yea if the TV is on, my kids are staring at it and not engaged in anything else. Even if its like boring grownup sports or something.

It feels like anytime we get home they immediately want a screen, and we pull them off for dinner and they are back (or trying to and we have to fight).

So, yea I'm gonna start working on an hour or less during the week barring sickness or a family movie on fridays or something.

This is why we rarely allow screen time during the week. It becomes a battle I don’t want to fight when we need to get going.

Weekends we are either a ton of screen time or hardly any. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[charlotte]

My oldest is fine with turning off the screen when we say it’s time, so I don’t worry as much about him.

The three-year-old 😱😱 not so much. If we start limiting screen time more intentionally it’ll be because of him.

[pbandj714]

I voted 60-90 min. Sometimes G will wake up 30 min before the rest of us and turn on a show but then we turn it off so that they will actually get ready for school. When the weather is crap, they typically turn on a show for 30 min while I finish up work before we go pick up the baby. And then they might watch a show after dinner. L is a total TV zombie. G is more likely to play and do other things with it on in the background. So far the baby gives zero cares about TV, which is great.

Weekends are pretty screen heavy, especially in the winter. When the weather is nice we might not watch any at all but winter makes us lazy slugs.

[mapleme]

7 days a week the girls are allowed to use the iPad 4-6 pm but they’re only allowed to watch shows on it on the weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday). On weekdays they do games, Kahn Academy, take pictures or whatever else is at least somewhat interactive. But three days a week they’re in day care until I pick them up and we go home and have dinner, so they don’t end up with screens on those days.

We’ll also add to the iPad time if there is something wonky to the day (like travel, illness, whatever else).

It does make the kids SUPER fixated on that time slot, but it also mostly eliminates any fights at other times of the day, which is nice.

[ovenrack]

I’m on mobile, I’ll try to do the poll later.

Our Roku broke on Sunday, so we’ve been without. It’s been actually fine since there’s a reason. The new Roku came yesterday and the kids haven’t noticed that I installed it, so I haven’t told them.

We don’t have tablets for the kids so that all they’ve got.

I do have a fire tablet, but I don’t have any good games. Related - are there any good games I could install on that for occasional play?

No one in our family plays video games and it’s given me a deficit in this area, one I’m not enthused about learning more about.

[rugger]

Mar 3, 2022 6:39:26 GMT -6 ovenrack said:

I’m on mobile, I’ll try to do the poll later.

Our Roku broke on Sunday, so we’ve been without. It’s been actually fine since there’s a reason. The new Roku came yesterday and the kids haven’t noticed that I installed it, so I haven’t told them.

We don’t have tablets for the kids so that all they’ve got.

I do have a fire tablet, but I don’t have any good games. Related - are there any good games I could install on that for occasional play?

No one in our family plays video games and it’s given me a deficit in this area, one I’m not enthused about learning more about.

Game suggestion: Prodigy Math. It's fun and free (unless you want to upgrade to a paid version) but the kids will play that for a long time

[mintyblueair]

I only have one school age child and he's only in school for the morning. During the winter, they get about 1 to 1.5 hours of TV time per day during the week. I am totally fine with that amount and they don't complain about the TV being turned off. I'm strict about content.

We don't do tablets and I have no plan to introduce those. We got a switch lite at Christmas but the games are too difficult for L so only MH uses it lol.

[sarenu]

Mar 3, 2022 7:18:32 GMT -6 rugger said:

Mar 3, 2022 6:39:26 GMT -6 ovenrack said:

I’m on mobile, I’ll try to do the poll later.

Our Roku broke on Sunday, so we’ve been without. It’s been actually fine since there’s a reason. The new Roku came yesterday and the kids haven’t noticed that I installed it, so I haven’t told them.

We don’t have tablets for the kids so that all they’ve got.

I do have a fire tablet, but I don’t have any good games. Related - are there any good games I could install on that for occasional play?

No one in our family plays video games and it’s given me a deficit in this area, one I’m not enthused about learning more about.

Game suggestion: Prodigy Math. It's fun and free (unless you want to upgrade to a paid version) but the kids will play that for a long time

Adventure academy is one we have as well.

You need to pay for it, but it’s task based quests.

[sarenu]

We also do Minecraft and the kids are getting into StarCraft.

Minecraft is all locally hosted, we don’t let them play with others outside of family.

StarCraft is a strategy based game to build armies and attack other groups. C plays against the computer. But it involves a lot of understanding units and resources.

F calls StarCraft the bug game.

[milano]

sarenu J really wants Minecraft, but we don't have nintendo live or whatever it is called so will he be able to play it on his own without "connecting" to anyone?

[sarenu]

Mar 3, 2022 9:00:35 GMT -6 milano said:

sarenu J really wants Minecraft, but we don't have nintendo live or whatever it is called so will he be able to play it on his own without "connecting" to anyone?

They play on the pc.

My husband handles the IT side of things.

I believe we have the Java version for each kid and they create their own worlds.

We have them in creative so they can’t die.

It’s helps them with mouse work and spelling. They need to search for things in their inventory.

If you have an old laptop this is a pretty good option. I don’t think you need anything “beefy” to run the game.

[mapleme]

We use the Crayola app and the kids love it. It's a chunk of change, but it's a really well done app.

[snowmoon]

My kids easily watch 3+ hours/day including school-y videos and game time. Sometimes it’s wayyy more. Weekends are usually less because we tend to get out more when J is home. We cut screen time off at dinner time and they are usually good at respecting that.