What do you regret most about how you raised your children?

We let my daughter watch TV from about the age of 3. Nothing scary all age-appropriate, Netflix kids etc. she liked watching. It made her happy and gave us some free time to ourselves.

She didn’t watch a lot but it could be about 1 hour a day.

Other people did the same - everyone lets their kids watch TV don’t they? Nothing wrong with that surely. One of her best friends was a girl whose parents hated an untidy house. They let her watch a lot of tvs. They didn’t even let her draw because they were scared she ‘might’ draw on the walls.

We first noticed it with this girl when the two would get together and draw. She couldn’t, or could hardly and everything she drew resembled a TV character strongly. She would also draw all the pictures uniformly and or just scribble a mess. My daughter could still draw quite well because we always provided quiet time. To draw, sew, or build something out of a box. But as she got older we noticed the attitude change, everyone knows this or has experienced it - a lacklustre attitude, no ambition, no interest, parallax. Especially right after watching something on TV. Bedtimes were difficult, and she was always so upset after watching. Temper tantrums were daily.

Her school hosted an event one evening to talk about childhood development, the lady who presented spoke at length about the effect of TV on children. She brought up different age ranges of kids’ drawings to show the difference between children who are exposed to a lot of TV vs those exposed to a little. The changes in creative ability. Those being less exposed are more creative, much easier to spend time on their own amusing themselves, are never bored and can work through emotions and not resort to TV because it’s an easy way to bury emotions or feelings and switch off.

We realized we had to change habits at home.

She now only watches a bit on the weekends on our phones, we sold our TV. We spend time eating together at the table, talking. She’s a much easier child at bedtime and all around. Her creativity is exceptional.

You may think you need TV, are simply unaffected by it, or can’t live without it. But you don’t, not even a little. It’s a facade, the time you spend in front of it is worth nothing and you will never get that time back and won’t ever be able to account for it either. Each hour you spend in front of it you may as well spend digging your grave. It’s worth that much.

We haven’t had a TV now since 2012. I read up to 4 books a month, am up to date on all newsworthy events, and have never been happier.

I regret introducing her to TV at a young age and have realized - that you don’t need a television in your life. It only wastes your hours on earth.

Good evidence suggests that screen viewing before the age of 18 months has lasting negative effects on children's language development, reading skills, and short term memory. It also contributes to problems with sleep and attention

The problem lies not only with what toddlers are doing while they're watching TV; it's what they aren't doing. Specifically, children are programmed to learn from interacting with other people. The dance of facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language between a toddler and parent are not only beautiful, but it's also so complex that researchers have to record these interactions on video and slow them down just to see everything that's going on. Whenever one party in this dance, child or parent, is watching TV, the exchange comes to a halt.