My kid's been watching TV since he was a newborn

One Mum got brutally honest about her baby’s screen time in an open letter, saying that he watches TV regularly and she doesn’t see the harm in it.

Writing on Café Mom, mum Lauren Gordon explained that she has been letting her son, now aged nine months, watch television since he was a newborn.

“Shortly after we brought him home, we discovered he was a fussy kid. He'd scream for hours and hours,” she explains.

“I randomly loaded up Netflix and looked under the kid's section, and stumbled across Mulan.

“When the first song came on, it was instant silence. He watched in amazement as the colors danced across the screen to the music. The minute it ended he began whimpering, so we rewound it and played it again.”

At one point, Lauren did wonder if her son was watching too much TV, and raised it with her husband.

“I'm worried he's going to be some delayed screen zombie who can't talk to adults,” she said.

However, her husband pointed out that they did plenty of other activities with their child, such as talking, snuggling and playing with him.

“As long as we aren't strapping him to a seat every day, walking away, and letting him lose himself in the screen, I think we'll be OK,” he said.

“And you know what? He's right,” Lauren wrote. “If TV can help us catch a break even for a few moments, what is the honest harm?”

As her son got older, Lauren says she introduced him to other movies and TV shows including Labyrinth, Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street.

“TV and pop culture is a great way to bond with our son and open his mind to the world,” she adds.

“He doesn't sit there like an emotionless zombie. He is in no way developmentally delayed because of it -- in fact, I think it's helped him talk sooner and read emotions better.”

What do you think?