No matter what a parent's stance on screen time is, we can all probably agree we'd like it to be practically nonexistent while they are in day care. After all, we're paying a lot of money to have them there and want them to have a fulfilling experience.
So imagine these parents' disappointment when they went to pick up their baby girl from day care and saw the babies zoning out in front of tablets.
The dad began by explaining that his 5-month-old daughter has been at her day care for roughly a month.
"Today my wife went to pick our daughter up and found her and a few other babies seated at a table, watching TV on a tablet," he wrote. "My wife noted that one of the babies cried when the episode of whatever they were watching ended, which makes me wonder how long the babies were seated there watching."
And frankly, the dad was really upset to learn that his little girl had been getting unapproved screen time.
"I know the AAP recommends no screen time before age 2 and we adhere to that pretty strictly at home," he wrote. "When we toured the daycare, one of the first questions we asked the owner (and the owner of every daycare we visited) was if the kids watch TV, and the answer from all owners was a resounding 'no,' with the occasional 'only for pre-k kids and only on rainy days' clause."
Now he isn't totally sure how to proceed.
"We are going to drop a note to our daughter's teachers but I wanted to collect some thoughts on this to see if I am over-reacting," he shared on Reddit. "Part of me wonders if this is the dirty little secret all daycare workers have to keep X amount of little babies in line, and if some degree of screen time is inevitable if you are sending your kids to daycare. What is your perspective?"
Redditors assured the dad he wasn't overreacting.
"I worked in daycare and then preschool for six years and have never seen babies put in front of a screen," one user wrote. "I’d switch to a new daycare ASAP, especially because the owners lied."
Others noted the lying is exactly what concerned them.
"Absolutely no screens at a quality daycare regardless of ‘pre K or a rainy day,'" noted another person. "And if they lied to you about screens what else are they lying about?"
Ultimately, everyone suggested the parents "run, not walk" to a new day care as soon as they could.
"That's not right," one user wrote. "If they were in a room with some older kids and the TV was on I might let it slide, but if they were specifically using a tablet to entertain a group of babies, not cool."
We're so glad this dad checked his gut and reached out to other parents — and hope that he and his wife find a better fit soon!
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
