📺Surviving Screen-Time Guilt: My TV Detox Journey

🌱 Why I Started a TV Detox

When I thought about the kind of mother I wanted to be, I imagined days full of activities, learning, connection — and no one zoning out in front of a screen.

So when I decided to try a TV detox, it wasn’t out of confidence. It came from guilt and shame. I had started leaning on the TV to get through the days — something I never imagined I would do — and it made me feel like I was failing.

What I didn’t realise at the time was how much screen time guilt in parenting was driving my decisions — not because the TV was the problem, but because I felt like I was.

There was also so much pressure to be the perfect, ever-present parent, and the loud message that TV under two is a huge no-no made me feel like I was constantly letting myself and my child down.

What I really needed wasn’t perfection. It was help.

🌀 When Good Intentions Meet Reality

Mornings are the hardest.

I’ve usually ‘slept’ with the baby all night, so I wake up already exhausted. All I want is a cup of tea and a moment to pull myself together before even thinking about breakfast.

Sometimes I manage that first cup one-handed, holding the baby because he doesn’t want to be put down — and because I simply don’t have the energy to cope with the whining that comes with trying.

Even if I get through that first cup without turning the TV on, breakfast is waiting.

Breakfast can’t be made with one hand. If the TV hasn’t gone on yet, this is usually the point where it does.

I don’t turn it on to switch off. I turn it on because I need a moment of quiet — to think, to decide what to make, to function.

Realistically, it’s a 50/50 chance I’ll reach breakfast before the TV goes on.

We hide the remote the night before, because if the baby sees it, he’ll whine until the TV is on. Most mornings, I’m just too tired to hold my ground.

It was in moments like these that I finally realised:

The TV wasn’t the problem. I was drowning.

🛟 Support Is Not a Parenting Failure

We talk a lot about not relying on screens. We talk far less about what parents are meant to rely on instead.

Family stepping in. A familiar programme giving you ten minutes to breathe. Choosing the option that helps everyone get through the day safely.

That isn’t bad parenting. That’s support.

🔄 Reframing the Guilt

Here’s what I’ve learned:

• Survival mode doesn’t cancel out good parenting.

• Screens don’t undo love, attachment, or effort.

• Regulation matters more than rigid rules.

  
  

When a parent is regulated, a child benefits. When a parent is drowning, strict rules don’t help anyone.

🌤️ What the Detox Actually Gave Me

The detox didn’t teach me how to eliminate screens. It taught me how to be honest.

Honest about my limits. Honest about when I need help. Honest about the fact that perfection was costing me more than flexibility ever could.

🤍 If You’re Reading This in Survival Mode

If today is messy. If the TV is on. If you’re doing the best you can with what you have.

You are not failing. You are responding to the season you’re in.

✨ What I Took Away From the Detox

The detox didn’t teach me how to eliminate screens. It taught me how to recognise when I needed support.

It reminded me that rules without context become pressure. That parenting doesn’t happen in a vacuum. And that getting through the day safely, calmly, and with some softness left matters more than ticking invisible boxes.

🌱 Small Steps, Not Shame

This isn’t an anti-TV message. It’s an anti-shame one.

Sometimes support looks like people stepping in. Sometimes it looks like lowering the bar. And sometimes — especially in the hardest moments — it looks like turning the TV on so you can breathe.

That isn’t giving up. That’s choosing compassion. For your child. And for yourself.