How Many Hours of Tv for a 3 Yr Old?

We keep it under 2hrs a day. However, I don't feel too guilty because I let him watch shows that teach him something. PBS has some great ones like Word World. Other shows I like are Mickey (teaches colors, shapes, counting), Dora/Diego (teaches Spanish, colors, and facts about animals). My son is 2 (will be three in March) and can count 1-20, 10-1, knows colors, shapes, can name/say all 26 letters--upper case, lower case, and sounds the letter makes. Also, get some great DVDs. My son loves Leap Frog Letter Sounds. Leap Frog makes great DVDs.

In my opinion TV isn't really good for tots to watch. Instead give him toys or crafts he can let loose and experiment with his imagination. TV limits children from being creative. But since he is already used to watching tv I would restrict it to 30 minutes but no more than an hour. If TV is used instead of creative playtime then it should be used more for teachable moments. I know sometimes I download clips from YouTube of whales or some sort of animals. But their is always dialogue in between. Good luck!

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Just because a 3 year old loves something doesn't mean he should just be allowed to have unlimited access to it. Most toddlers love sweets, but we, as parents, limit their sweet intake...the same is true for tv.
I think that so many of the cartoons are nothing more than violence in technicolor...and I see so much of the really rough play and disrespect for others coming from it.
I was lucky..none of my girls were particularly enamored with tv...they didn't even watch Sat. morning cartoons that much. Now that I have grandchildren, their exposure to tv is strictly limited, in fact at my 3 year olds house the tv is rarely turned on except for the occassional sports event that they all love.
Even the ads are something that is not appropriate for children...advertising R rated movies, or showing other things that you would not want your child exposed to.
As one of the other Moms said...use their time to interact with them...teach them about this big wonderful world they live in . My oldest daughter uses a lot of the videos online for her son to watch...that way she can screen them ahead of time and she is right there to interact with him as he watches them.

A lot of "experts" cite 2 hours or less as ideal for children over 2 years old (they say none for children under 2). We also sometimes rack up more time than that since I will let them watch something when I have to do something upstairs or need to run down to the basement to do laundry and my boys get themselves into trouble pretty quickly. I try to break up shorter shows during the day and we don't watch "tv," we just have children's DVDs, so usually cartoon episodes or short movies. If you son also plays any computer games (I made the mistake of allowing Sesame Street at some point in year 3) that counts as "screen" time as well. I personally don't always "count" the time because it is a pain and sometimes the boys will just ask to watch Monster Trucks and it will be on in the background while they line up their cars around the living room and have a mini Monster Jam or something--they are actively playing and hardly looking at it sometimes (that's when I sneak it off anyway).

For me, I'm much more concerned about enough active play than I am about restricting television, although I would be happy to just leave it off. Since my husband is also full-time day caregiver, that's not likely to happen. (He's a guy, he likes television.) =)

I usually put it on when I have to do something, we don't have set "hours", but usually it is if I shower, make food, clean up, make a phonecall or something like that. I am sure if I added it up it would be 3 hours at least, which is probably too much, but it is educational stuff like mickey mouse clubhouse, team umizoomi and stuff like that, and it is split up during the whole day, we get up at 6, and go to bed at 7.
I am sure it also varies from child to child what is "harmful" but as long as they are getting plenty of your attention, outdoor time and imaginary play time you will be ok.
As far as harmful goes I would say anything over 4 hours would be harmful

We watch WAY too much tv in our house. My son is 5 now but the tv has always been pretty much constant because DH and I are the kind of people who leave it on while we do other things.

I will say it's a problem and now we are struggling to cut back, all three of us! Glad to hear you're trying to get a handle on it now, lest you end up fighting about it in a few years (like we are!)

As for quality, I just wanted to add that if violence and inappropriate adds are a concern, but you still want to let him have some tv time, try getting dvd's and tapes from the library. There are some wonderful ones out there... the usual Dora and Diego and Arthur and the like, but also the Scholastic series animates storybooks, and they are fab! You find a lot of things at the library you might now have otherwise watched on tv. I can remember my son choosing the Wizard of Oz one week... what a great movie! But we never would have run across that watching Nick and PBS...

This time of year, we have the TV far more than we should, but there's not a whole lot else to do in the middle of Winter. After a couple hours, I am sooooo tired of hearing it, that I make my kids turn it off and find something else to do. Once they are "bored" again, the TV goes back on.

Do what you think is right. If you don't want him watching so much, you just need something else for hi to do to keep his interest. Art projects, Baking, puzzles, toys ect.

To me, once the weather breaks, the kids will be back outdoors burning energy and TV time won't be a big issue.

If you take a look at the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations they suggest no more than 2 hours a day (with that being the real "limit"), but try to shoot for fewer.

I allow 2 30 min shows per day such as Sid, Arthur, Caillou etc.

I am a HUGE proponent of Children's tv...
I Love the educational shows, but I also love the classics that I used to watch as a child.
I let all my kids (twins 3 and twins 9) watch tv all day long.

I believe that they have enough education from K-on and I want them to veg at times.... Their brains needs to sit back and NOT think or do anything.
Summer is a Big tv viewing time in my home.We go to the pool, parks, ect but mostly as a SAHM I let them watch Diseny, Nick jr, Nick,boomerang ect....
it gives them something to do to beat the TEXAS HEAT( upto 105 EVERYDAY) and lets me get stuff done here...

American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 2 hours per day for 3 year olds. I restrict my 3 year old daughter's viewing time, but I have to admit that every now & then she watches more than 2 hours/day. I believe that the particular shows/tv channels that children watch are every bit as important as how many hours they watch. My daughter only watches PBS/PBS Kids channels, PBS Kids Sprout, Nick Jr. and Disney Jr. They have very few or no commercials, and the shows are geared toward younger children. Viewing age-appropriate programs is very important! (I know this is difficult if there are older siblings in the house.) Co-viewing (parent & child watching together) is good, too. My daughter & I love watching Blue's Clues, Thomas & Friends and Dora together. You can talk about what they are doing on the show. It's great to seize every educational opportunity possible out of the shows kids watch. If your son is watching educational, age-appropriate shows I don't see the harm in watching a little more than 2 hours. I think watching all day long can become a bit problematic, though. Kids need to unplug and engage in creative (crafts, coloring, etc.) and physical activities, too. I find my daughter having tea parties with her dolls/animals and dressing up/role playing much more often when the tv is turned off. Balance seems to be the key here. Hope this helps!

No tv is clearly the safest. The current American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for children over 2 is for no more than 1-2 hours of total media time/day and that is should be high quality educational programming. There are also recommendations that tv is least harmful if you are watching together so it is an interactive experience (you are discussing it with him). Exposure above 2 hours/day is associated with increased risk of obesity, speech delays and attention problems. These issues were seen with 4.2 hours/day of tv (which is apparently below the average, huh?)

My children only watch TV on the weekends but length depends. It's usually only a couple of hours but they have been known to watch longer. They might occasionally see it during the week if we go to a friends house or if we put something on to watch as a family (usually documentaries or a movie we think has a good message). We're careful about what they watch. We actually don't have a TV service (dish, etc.) and watch all of our stuff online. So we're able to be very discriminating what we put on for them. They mainly watch PBS kids shows although, not all. And there are some other shows not on PBS they watch. We especially like older vintage shows (early 80's and back).

There is a great deal of research about the physical, mental, and developmental effects of TV and children of all ages. See
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/article-faq.html

Here's an excerpt:
"In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement about media and children. In it, the organization discussed the benefits media education can have as well as the health risks TV poses to children, especially those under the age of two. Specifically, the AAP said:

"Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years. Although certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant caregivers (eg, child care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged."

Hi M., We let our 2 1/2 year old watch one 35-45 minute DVD in the morning and one in the afternoon for a total of 1-1 1/2 hours a day.

I think TV becomes a habit, so if you want to reduce the number of hours, just explain to your loved one that we get a TV treat after breakfast and before dinner ... or some such thing. At other times, he can play with his toys, read, do puzzles etc....

I would make it a part of his routine, so he knows that ther is a 'beginning' and an 'end' to TV time.

I hope this helps. Jilly

My 10 year old and 13 year old have always had a limit of 30 min. on weekdays, and 2.5 hours total on weekends. A few years ago we added a "floating hour" based on getting homework done, good behavior, etc. and they can use that at their discretion.

When we have my granddaughter here we always have the TV on... well when she isn't here we have it on all the time too. I keep it on the good channels for her, nick, disney, sprout and if there is a scooby doo on, we turn it to that since she loves Scooby. Even though it is on she spends very little time actually watching TV, she is drawing on the marker board, playing games with me, or playing with her doll house and dolls. She is very smart and caring and not an ounce overweight. In the summer we spend a lot of time outside at the park or going for walks with her riding her bike. I think if your son is sitting watching tv all day and is not getting much exersize then you may want to limit it but if he is playing and stops only to watch a favorite show then he is probably fine.