How Much TV Do You Let Your Kids Watch?

Tons. I find electronics (TV, computer, etc.) to be HUGELY useful life and learning and imagination tools.

At this point (when kiddo -age 8- is well) probably 4-5 hours a day are spent in front of screens. And 6-8 are spent doing active things. It works out well for us as far as balance goes. ((When he's not well, all bets are off)). Now, we homeschool, so we have a LOT more time than most folks. It's not 8 hours sitting in school and then 5 hours sitting some more. Everyone's balance points are different.

Now... I'll also say... while it's cool to have him come running up to me saying "You know how long a photon takes to travel to earth from the sun??? 8 SECONDS that's all! 8 Seconds!" and go running back at top speed to hear the sexiest minds of our generation explain earth and space science to him (carl sagan, de grasse tyson, etc.), bring on the Spongbob as well. While it's great to be doing virtual tours of the Lourve or AMNH or Cluefinders... have at the Roblox & xBox as well. While I would personally go back in time and NOT let him on starfall.com (he was reading fluently by age 3 because of this computer program) how many hundreds of amazing things did he learn and was he exposed to because I can bring the whole durn world into our living room??? Stories, imho, are just as valuable as more traditional 'education' type things. Well done stories, at least. Pulp is always pulp.

As a toddler? I shot for at LEAST 1-3 hours a day. We're an ADHD household, those 1-3 hours were the ONLY peace I got all day. (We'd start off our mornings with a 6mile run/walk (he'd run, I'd walk), and 20 minutes later, he'd be doing gymnastics in the livingroom, or playing on our pots and pans drums, or bouncing up and down for 500 times in a row (we counted, often by 10's). ACTIVE, adventurous, kid. Curled up with Thomas the Tank Engine, or National Geographic, or The Black Stallion... laughing in delight at starfall (darnit, I CANNOT stress enough, how difficult life gets when you have a fluently reading toddler)... figuring out puzzles in Portal (xbox) or any one of several other games. I DEFINITELY plugged my son in for at LEAST an hour every day. There was no way for me to keep up the pace, otherwise.

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My daughter started seeing Sesame Street when she was just over a year (more because of my mother than because of us!)...closer to 2 she was watching more of the PBS shows, like Super Why and Clifford. Now she is almost 4 and the TV is always on in the morning, rotating between Nick Jr., PBS, and Disney Jr. (cartoons only, no Hannah Montana or anything like that). She might see some later in the afternoon or at night as well. Once in a while if a Disney movie happens to be on, she'll watch that. Admittedly, it's a lot more than what is recommended, and sometimes if she's actually sitting and watching, it's a nice break for me, but most of the time, she really isn't just sitting and watching it - she's usually still playing with toys, talking to me, painting pictures or whatever, and it's on in the background. She's actually picked up quite a bit, like learning to count to 10 in Spanish and other Spanish words from Dora. We spend a lot of time playing outside and doing other non-TV activities too. And she still takes an afternoon nap so no TV then. So far, I have not seen it have a negative impact in any way. She will be doing another year of preschool in the fall, and that will be 4 mornings a week, so that's going to reduce the potential amount of TV viewing considerably. If I feel the need to instill limits at some point, I will, but I don't think TV is the source of all evil in this world. Right now DD would RATHER play outside or doing almost anything else than just watch TV! Both hubby and I are regular TV watchers (especially in the evening), grew up watching it all the time, and we are still productive members of society. I think some kids can get really "hooked" on it and some parents don't do enough to counteract that, and that's just being lazy. But letting them watch TV is not the worst thing in the world - it's all about balance, as far as I am concerned.

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when my kids were under 2 - they watched one episode of Sesame Street or Clifford or some other type of show....

I kept the TV on as background noise for the most part....it was always on kid shows...

Now? at 11 and 9? I TRY to keep it to 1.5 hours...I push them outside as much as possible.

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my daughter gets to watch a little bit in the mornings if she gets up early enough in the morning before daycare. Then after work, she generally gets to watch something while I make dinner and her dad does whatever he generally does then (trash, change clothes, whatever). Then we usually watch a bit after dinner, but collectively probably an hour or so. Maybe more during the winter, definately less when it's nice enough to play outside.

I do generally have it on for noise, though, so she does catch more Food Network and History Channel than most kids, probably.

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I used to feel guilty about letting my twins watch TV. They'd watch Sesame Street, Super Why, Between the Lions, and other PBS shows. Then, two months before their second birthday, one of my sons holds up a foam letter in the bath tub and correctly identified it as "O". He then picked up a "B" and did the same thing. I thought it was a fluke, and we certainly hadn't taught them letters. By the time they turned two, both of my boys could identify all 26 uppercase letters. Now, at 2.5, they know all upper and lowercase and know all letter sounds, including the vowels!! I owe their initial letter recognition to Sesame Street and other shows. Yes, we started teaching them other letters once they showed us they could learn them, but the initial exposure to letters and words on TV is what really got the ball rolling. So, mommy guilt is gone!!!

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During the week I let my daughter (3.5) watch an hour, sometimes a little more, each day. My son is 20 months and is not really interested in TV at all. He will sometimes pause and watch maybe 5 minutes of a show that his sister is watching, but not usually. My daughter really wasn't interested in TV at all either until around 2/2.5. I also sometimes let my daughter watch Sesame Street Videos on their website, but that's not even every week. I do find it useful and a good learning tool, besides, sometimes she just wants to relax and veg in front of the TV. I do too, so I can't blame her! ;) On the weekends she sometimes watches more TV b/c I'm sort of the mindset of taking a break and relaxing and if that means she watches more TV, then I'm usually fine with it. I think for toddlers it's important to let them watch "learning" TV most of the time, but I think TV is just fine.

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My kids watch a ton right now....but I'm 33 weeks pregnant and feeling AWFUL, so it is what it is!! :) But usually we have it on during breakfast and while we're starting the day. Then it's off for a few hours. Then I let my oldest watch a few shows while the younger one naps, so I can rest too. Then it's off again for the rest of the day.

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Most days, we don't watch tv at all when my son is awake. (He's four.)We just recently picked up a video from the library, and he can watch it once a day, so that's a half-hour. And yesterday, he really needed some down time, so we watched another half-hour documentary on insects while snuggling on the bed. So I'd say, when there's novelty, about 30 minutes a day, and when he's 'over it', nothing. We went for probably a two or three weeks with nothing on, and just found the video at the library because he's interested in dinosaurs. We do tend to get our videos from the library-- I like this because they are more educational and no commercials!

I should also add that he doesn't really ask for it during those 'off' times. A half-hour feels good for me...I am flexible depending on content. (If he's wanting to watch a concert it will go longer, of course. He went for a month or two of wanting to watch Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and play his guitar along with it. ) He's just a kid with a great imagination, and as I said, we adults don't watch television when he's awake. Not appropriate and we're just too busy.

We don't own a TV, so I'll let you guess how much they watch at home, but we do have neighbors with kids the same age and they have it running 24/7. The kids (as in all of them) are always either at our house or their house all day.

Almost 5 year old daughter does not watch TV. She has seen it at the Y and on special occasions at school. We also let her watch the NCAA girls and boys championship basketball games and one Lightning game. I mute out the commercials. She doesn't need any computer skills and actually for preschool next year I refused to sign the internet authorization form. There is NO reason kids before age 10 need computers, they won't be behind, that is just a ridiculous idea. We rush our kids so much these days. We have been reading to our daughter since we brought her home from the hospital - this is what is important. We take her to the library once a week. If kids are bored or you need to rest get them a pile of books, TV is not the answer. We will NEVER have video games.

TV does not go on in the morning. Need get ready for school etc. When she was younger the tv would go on in the evening for bed time. Helped to wind her down. She liked sprout and disney movies. I never had that issue other parents have that their kid wont go to bed or some such. A little relaxing tv did the trick. Now she is older the rule is she can watch tv in the evening or before bed as a reward once the homework is done. Saturday morning she can watch tv until 12 or play video games etc. Thats my time to wake up slowly

They watch what they want - which is hardly ever at all. But I don't necessarily limit their time. They watch educational shows for the most part.

My wife is the same way....she's evidently seen studies that show even if the TV is on in the background that kid's play will be less creative....then there's some ADD concerns. I am looking forward to other's thoughts--I feel like a little TV and iPad videos could be good. I always joke that our kids will be left behind as the digital-age kids will be more adept at watching the multiple video feeds inside their head in 10 years.
-- Joe

my TV is on all day long. both of my kids are in school during the year and my husband works nights and sleeps during the day. i grew up in a house where the tv was on all day. i like the background noise. during summer or during school year, i let the kids watch tv before school and then some after school, but it's mostly set to a news channel. if they tell me they want to watch something then i let them. they typically don't watch too much. i don't know exactly how much because i don't time them. i think tv is only a problem if it becomes the only way a child is entertaining themselves.

The APA does say no TV at all for under 2 and I used to feel very guilty is I even had the tv on when he was in the room! But I know lots of people who showed their babies under age 1 videos like Baby Einstein. As long as its age appropriate then I don't think a 1/2 hour or an hour long educational video is going to harm them. Especially if its the wintertime or a rainy day when its hard to get outside. My 3 year old son goes to school for 3 hours a day 4 days a week and when its nice out he watches 1-2 hours a day. When its bad weather, has no school, and/or he is sick then I let him watch more, maybe 3-4 hours total.

Very, very little. We all watched a movie today while cuddling in bed for Father's day. Other than that, not a lot. Their dad and I will watch something after they go to bed once or twice a week, and the 14 and 12 year old will stay up to watch with us. The 9 and under aren't really interested much. They watch maybe an hour a week?

My daughter watches about an hour a day. The TV is usually on longer then that, set on PBS, and my daughter will watch here and there but she would rather be outside playing or imagination playing.

When cleaning or making lunch/dinner I do turn it on so if she is "bored" she can watch that and let me get 30-60 mins of work/chores done. Once again she will start to watch then go play with her barbies, stuff animals and so on.

My daughter is almost 5 years old, when she was a year to 3 years she would sit and watch an hour of TV a day while I got chores/meals done. It was nice and it never effected my child since the majoirty of the day was spent with me playing with her.

I let my 3-year-old watch about 8-10 hours a week But to be clear, I'm not proud of that. Somewhere between lazy parenting and surviving the arrival of our second baby is how we arrived at that number.

I have no limits. We use it in small chunks like you. It's a rare thing when any of the kids watches a whole show. They usually get side tracked and as soon as I see their attention wane I shut it off.