I’m honestly losing my mind over this. My 7yo wants to watch YouTube after school and I keep reading different things everywhere. Some articles say 1 hour max, others say 2 hours is fine. What do you all do?
we do about an hour on weekdays, maybe 2-3 on weekends. honestly it depends on the day though. if it’s raining and there’s nothing else to do, I’m not gonna stress about an extra 30 mins 
The AAP recommends no more than 1-2 hours for school-age children. But here’s what I learned, it’s more about WHAT they are watching than how long. Educational content vs mindless scrolling makes a huge difference. My kids watch nature documentaries and I don’t count that the same as random gaming videos.
lol my kids would live on screens if i let them 
we tried the 1 hour thing but it caused SO many fights. now we just do no screens until homework is done and then they get until dinner. works better for us
I think we are all overthinking this tbh. Like, our parents didn’t track our TV time down to the minute and we turned out okay? Obviously don’t let them rot their brains all day but some flexibility won’t hurt. My rule is just go outside for at least an hour first, then screen time is earned.
Here’s my take after 3 kids, it changes with age. My 5yo gets maybe 30-45 mins because she can’t self-regulate yet. My 10yo gets more because he actually stops when I tell him to. Also weekends are different than weekdays. Nobody’s following strict limits on a rainy Saturday, let’s be real.
I used to be super strict about this and honestly it just made everyone miserable. Now we focus on balance. Did you play outside today? Did you read? Did you do something creative? If yes to those, then screen time isn’t the enemy. It’s when it REPLACES everything else that it’s a problem.
Does anyone else’s kid try to negotiate extra time like they are a lawyer?? ‘But mom you said an HOUR and it’s only been 52 minutes!’ 
We use a timer now and when it goes off, it goes off. No arguments. Saved my sanity.
My daughter is 9, and we noticed she was getting really moody and not sleeping well when she had too much screen time. Cut it back to 45 mins on school nights, and the difference was night and day. Every kid is different, though, you gotta watch for those signs
Real talk though, I work from home and sometimes I NEED them on a screen so I can finish something. And I don’t feel guilty about it anymore. Perfect parenting doesn’t exist. We aim for 1 hour, but some days it’s more, and that’s just life. They are fine, they go outside, they have friends. Balance matters more than perfect numbers.