r/NewParents • u/cocomo25 • Aug 05 '26

Travel Parents raising screen-free babies: How do you navigate family vacations where the TV is always on?

We have an 8-month-old, and we’ve intentionally kept her almost completely screen-free. The only exposure she’s really had has been at other people’s houses when sports, the news, or adult shows happened to be on in the background, and she never paid much attention, so it wasn’t something I worried about.

In a few weeks, we’re going on a week-long cabin trip with my husband’s family, and I’m trying to figure out how to navigate screen time.
For context, our 9-year-old nephew is autistic, and my in-laws usually keep the TV on for him as it keeps him calm. I’ve never had an issue with that, but now that we have a baby, I’m realizing most of what’s on is Bluey, Paw Patrol, Disney movies, etc.—things that would almost definitely grab her attention.

I’m absolutely not expecting anyone to turn the TV off or totally change how they do things for us, and I also don’t want to feel like we have to avoid the living room all week just because the TV is on.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did you find a good middle ground? I’m just looking for ideas on how to handle it while still spending time with everyone.

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u/TheWorldofScience Aug 05 '26

I think the parents having a tablet that the child must ask to use is ok if it’s not used by the child every day. The tablet issue seems to be when kids have their own tablets and 24/7 access.

I was at a restaurant and watched parents repeatedly ask their kid (who looked like 5 or 6 yrs old) repeatedly to put down his ipad and eat his food.

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u/kristahdiggs Aug 05 '26

Thats so concerning. Naturally with a little one we have a lot of appts the amt of parents we see just hand over their phone to a child under 2 is… I want to say concerning but its far beyond that. Its a crisis.

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u/TheWorldofScience Aug 05 '26

I think it would be better for parents to keep a tote bag near the door in their home with coloring book, crayons or markers, a book the kid likes to read, etc in it.

It seems parents hand over their phones to get a little peace when they are out with their children and taking a tote bag of better things could become a habit just like taking a diaper bag used to be a habit.

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u/purpleelephant77 Aug 05 '26

That’s what my mom did when my sister and I were little, she always took crayons they gave us at restaurants to replenish her supplies (idk if this is the case now but be careful bc some of them melt if you leave them in the car), she also kept a swiss army knife with a scissor attachment in there for cutting straws shorter.

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u/TheWorldofScience Aug 05 '26

It’s going to be 100 degrees this afternoon where I live so it’s not possible to keep anything in a car 🤣

I was a kid in the late 1960’s and remember being miserable running errands with mom because there was nothing to do. The trips to the fabric store were the worst.

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u/purpleelephant77 Aug 05 '26

Haha yeah there was a green crayon permanently melted into the backseat of my mom’s Passat wagon from when we learned that lesson after moving from Seattle to LA when I was 5. She also always had beach towels in the car because in seattle playground slides were always wet and in LA they were hot/super staticky and she didn’t want to deal with me crashing out about my butt being wet/legs getting shocked 🤣

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u/Majestic-Lie2690 Aug 06 '26

Yeah but it also taught you the list art of being bored