Mama-Come-Lately

Baboo (not his real name) is rendered slack-jawed by the TV. We don’t let him sit and watch it, but he catches a glimpse now and then as he’s being carried through to another room. Sometimes his entire body starts vibrating, like he can’t physically handle what his bitty little eyes are taking in.

The American Pediatric Association recommends that children under two watch no TV at all. They have no policy on how much time babies should or shouldn’t spend with their parents’ smartphones and tablets, but one assumes the recommendation would be similarly strict. (Farhad Manjoo, my favorite tech writer and quite a smart person, has written eloquently in favor of limited screen time.)

My issue with the TV is more one of quality time than moral fiber. The baby sleeps 12 hours a night and takes two or three naps totaling, on average, four hours. So he’s awake for roughly eight hours a day. Subtract time for eating, diaper changes and getting ready for naps and bed. Subtract more time for running errands with me. Subtract a bit more for me carrying him around as I move the laundry along or head upstairs for the eighth time because I once again forgot to bring down the whozit. Or the whatzit.

I’m not a big math person, but I know that doesn’t leave tons of time to just play. And I don’t need silly math to know that — every day, I feel like I fight the rising tide of housework to get one-on-one time to play with the baby, or watch him play, or read to him, or let him plunk on a keyboard.

And yet, he gets screen time almost daily, because my mother-in-law lives in India and we Skype with her. She was here for an extended visit shortly after Baboo was born, and left when he was nearly six months old. Often, because of the time difference and scheduled power outages on her end, we Skype as I feed the baby his breakfast.

A few weeks ago, we had Avva up (grandma) on the iPad and she said, “clap, clap.” And Baboo started clapping. I was flabbergasted. 10 months old, and interacting with a person on a screen.

Surely that’s not going to stunt his intellectual development.