Before I get into this, I want to be upfront about something: I am not a parenting expert. I’m not a child psychologist, a language therapist, or a development specialist. I’m just another new mum, sharing my experience, my learnings, and what works well for my family. Take it as exactly that, and nothing more.
Okay. Now that we’ve got that out of the way… let’s talk about screens.
Screen time is one of those topics that can send parents into a spiral of guilt very quickly. The guidelines, the opinions, the unsolicited advice — it’s a lot. And for a long time, the messaging was pretty blunt: no screens at all for under twos. Full stop. I remember reading that when Livi was tiny and thinking, right, okay. And then thinking, but realistically?
Because here’s the thing. My partner worked abroad a lot when Livi was very young. There were evenings when I was doing everything solo, and sometimes I just needed five minutes to get dinner on the table. If Bear in the Big Blue House singing a song with Shadow was what let me drain the pasta without a small person attached to my leg, then Bear in the Big Blue House it was, and I refuse to feel bad about that.
I think telling new parents “zero screen time, ever” isn’t just unrealistic — it’s unhelpful. It makes us feel guilty for something that is, frankly, inevitable. We are surrounded by screens. You’re reading one right now. So rather than pretending they don’t exist, I’d rather think about how to have them in our home in a way that’s intentional, healthy, and actually good for our daughter’s development.
we don’t have screen time limits — but we do have an approach
I want to be clear about what I mean by that, because “no screen time limits” can sound a lot more chaotic than it actually is in practice.
We don’t watch a lot of TV ourselves. Livi spends the vast majority of her day playing, being outside, reading (well, being read to, and doing her own version of reading where she babbles with great conviction), and generally doing what toddlers do. The TV is in the sitting room, which is a shared family space, and we tend to only put it on in the evenings, or on a Sunday afternoon when the weather has decided to be very Irish about things.
The key thing for us is that the TV is never just on while Livi sits in front of it alone. We’re always in the room with her. We’re always either co-watching or I’m reading my book nearby while she watches and plays. I’m present, engaged, and checking in with what’s on. It’s active, not passive. We interact with the content, and we chat about what’s happening. We watch together, not separately.
She’s not allowed to watch YouTube or anything with autoplay, where a video she hasn’t chosen can just appear next. And the TV stays in the sitting room — there’s no screen in her bedroom, and she doesn’t have her own device. Content is limited to a shared device in a shared space where we can watch together. That’s the boundary, even if the clock isn’t.
the content we actually put on
This is where it gets specific, because I’ve put a lot of thought into what we watch and why.
We lean very heavily towards older shows and movies. Not out of nostalgia (okay, maybe a little out of nostalgia), but because older children’s content tends to be slower, quieter, and just generally calmer. We prioritise storyline and dialogue over stimulation. Muted, natural tones rather than bright flashing colours. Relaxing background music rather than jarring sound effects. Minimal shouting (although Bluey can get a little hectic sometimes, and we love Bluey, so we’ll allow it).
Some of our regulars: Bear in the Big Blue House, Franklin, Little Bear, Kipper, Babar, Maisy, Angelina Ballerina, Max & Ruby, Blue’s Clues. These shows are gentle, warm, and story-led in a way that a lot of modern content isn’t. They don’t feel like they’re trying to overstimulate. They feel like a hug.
For movies, we love the older Disney animated films (especially anything with good music in it, because Livi absolutely loves a boogie), Studio Ghibli (Ponyo, My Neighbour Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service are all firm favourites), and the 1977 Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which is just objectively perfect. We also love Coco — though I will warn you that I cry every single time we watch it, without fail, and I don’t see that changing.
We’re not anti-modern content by any means, though. We absolutely adore Puffin Rock (and not just because Chris O’Dowd does the narration, although that certainly doesn’t hurt). It’s calm, it’s set in Ireland, the characters have Irish names, and it celebrates Irish wildlife. It’s genuinely lovely.
I’ve also been really impressed by some of the shorter content on the Disney app. There are these brilliant shorts, around six or seven minutes long, with no dialogue at all. Kuap, Tümpel, and the Little Bird and the… series (Leaf, Bee, Caterpillar) are all wonderfully calm and funny without a single word being spoken. I find them very soothing myself, honestly.
screens as a language learning tool
This one is a bit of a personal experiment, and I want to be upfront that I’m not a language expert. This is just my approach, based on my own instinct and a bit of research.
I’m teaching Livi to speak Irish, and one of the things I’ve started doing is putting on Irish language versions of her favourite stories. A lot of the Julia Donaldson stories are available on the TG4 app, and they’re beautifully animated with wonderful music. Livi already knows these stories well in English (she has the books, and some of the Tonies), so my theory is that hearing the same familiar words and storylines in Irish will help her make the connections. She already knows what happens, she already loves the characters, so the language becomes the new layer rather than a barrier.
I genuinely have no idea if it’s working, but again, I am just a mum trying things and seeing what sticks.
what the guidelines actually say now
When Livi was born, the guidance was fairly firm: no screen time at all for children under two. I took note of it, quietly ignored some of it in the name of being able to cook dinner, and did my own research to figure out an approach that felt right for our family.
Interestingly, the guidelines have shifted since then. The UK updated their recommendations recently to acknowledge that screen time is for shared activities. Things that encourage bonding, interaction, and conversation are okay for young children. The updated guidance recommends slow-paced, age-appropriate content and flags that fast-paced social media-style videos and AI tools should be avoided. It also emphasises co-viewing: watching together, talking about what’s happening, asking questions, and engaging with the content as a shared experience rather than a babysitting tool.
I’ll be honest, it was a bit of a relief to read that. Not because I needed external validation, but because it confirmed something I already felt: that the blanket “no screens ever” advice wasn’t giving parents the full picture. The how matters just as much as the how much.
on raising a healthy relationship with technology
This is really what underpins everything for me. We are raising a child who will grow up entirely surrounded by technology. Screens are not going anywhere. So rather than treating them as something forbidden and therefore inherently desirable, I want Livi to grow up with a healthy, balanced relationship with them.
I genuinely believe that putting something entirely off-limits makes it more appealing, not less. The goal isn’t to shield her from screens forever; it’s to teach her, slowly and over time, how to use them well. How to be present with content rather than being passive. How to choose what she watches rather than just accepting whatever comes next. When to put the remote down and go outside (and she already does this, entirely of her own accord, which feels like a win).
Our approach will change as she gets older. It already has, and it’ll keep evolving as she does. There’s no perfect system, and I’d be wary of anyone who told you there was. We’re all just figuring it out as we go, doing our best with the information we have, and adjusting when something isn’t working.
That’s slow parenting, I think — not a rigid set of rules, but a thoughtful, ongoing conversation with yourself, your partner, and eventually your child, about what a good life actually looks like. And sometimes, a good life includes a Sunday evening on the couch with Livi, a bowl of snacks, and The Sound of Music.
She always wanders off before the interval, but she comes back for every single musical number. And honestly, same.
Enjoyed this? You might also like a beginners guide to slow living in ireland. Or come and find me on Instagram and Substack where I share a lot of our slower days.