How much screen time do you allow your 5 year old?

Question

My husband allows his 4 year old daughter (my step-daughter) to be on her iPad for an extended amount of time. His reason is she doesn’t like to play all the time and just likes to relax. I also have a 4 year old but I am strict on limiting her time but thankfully she gets bored with it easily and would rather color or play with her dolls. It really irks me that he just lets her sit on it for 4+ hours a day. We agreed to a screen time limit where the iPad automatically stops after a certain time and I caught him overriding it today when she reached her limit. Am I being too strict? What rules/limits do you use in your household?

Answer

My 6 year old will play on his switch or watch TV for a few hours if it's raining or I'm cleaning like a mad woman, but I don't let him do that everyday and he wasn't allowed to use a tablet for that long when he was 4. I think I'd normally set the timer to like, maybe 30 minutes to an hour when he was that age. I am more lenient about it if he's doing something educational, but I still won't let him sit in front of a screen for hours on end on a regular basis. The "she just likes to relax" thing sounds more like a "she's being quiet and not bothering me" excuse to me.

Answer

When my kids were little, we tried to limit it to an hour a day, on average. It wasn’t typically in one sitting.
My kids get more screen time now, but I shoo them away pretty regularly. Sitting in front of an iPad for 4+ hours every day isn’t healthy for anyone of any age.

Answer

No you're not being too strict. And she doesn't want to play, because she has free access to the iPad.
We have YouTube kids that only is allowed (There's a timer on) 20 minutes a day. And the iPad will lock after 1,5 hours - but she usually stops long before that.
And then we watch cartoons on the TV and it varies how much. Everything from half an hour to several hours some days. But in general I would guess our TV runs cartoons 1,5-2 hours a day. A little in the morning and about an hour pre dinner when we make food and she's home from daycare all tired. This is what works for us.

Answer

Thank all of you so much for your input! You guys rock! I did show my husband all these responses and he agrees he does let her go overboard with it so we are looking at more activities to do with her around the house that she’s interested in.

Answer

My son is 6 and he only gets 20-30 minutes. He wasn’t allowed any screen time until he was 5 and it was very limited.

Answer

My kids won’t have tablets Or phones till they are teenagers my SD has one she is 11 I hate she has it  but her mom refused to have a home phone and refuses to let us talk on her cellphone for more than 10 minutes like 2 times a week ….. so we had to get SD a phone so SHE can decide how much she talks to her dad …. The only rules he set was where she couldn’t take it and anything downloaded hast to be okayed by both him and her mom …. And that even if ground from playing on the phone she still has it so he is still able to reach her …. We told them “delete all the apps we don’t care it’s for her and her dad to talk not to play on” but they don’t and just complain she is on it too much 🤦🏻‍♀️ like they have the ability to keep her from playing on it ….and DONT 
Anyway my personal view kids don’t need them idc what the schools want ….. 
None for the kids till they are 13

Answer

I don't limit to a set amount of electronics time but I do severely limit passive watching especially videos of other people playing with toys or other people playing video games. I strongly prefer for them to watch stories with plots or informational shows if they are going to watch content (PBS kids, Vooks, Story Bots, etc)  
If my kids are playing interactive games (especially with each other) we don't limit, but we do enforce taking breaks for physical activity (which honestly is often a freeze dance or one of those themed runs on YouTube that we put on the TV). Usually after the brain break they choose to play with toys for a while.

How much screen time do you allow your 5 year old?

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