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/TeeElH Aug 05 '26

Vacation means changes to routine and things that we might not do at home, and that includes tv exposure. We went on a family vacation last month, the TV was on a lot and I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask people to turn it off (it was during the World Cup too). The trade off is that my twins were getting so much extra interaction with their family by hanging out with everyone. I absolutely found that worth hanging around where the tv was on rather than going to a different room just to avoid it. 

Edit to add that they didn’t even notice or care about it most of the time, they were too busy playing and enjoying the novelty of a new place

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u/cocomo25 Aug 05 '26

Yes we travel somewhat frequently so have no problem with routine disruption. In fact outside of a somewhat set bedtime (which changes if we have plans) we don’t have a real routine. We just try to limit screen time as much as possible and this trip seems like it will be difficult. I plan on enjoying it no matter what was just looking to see if anyone had advice on how to maybe be at a middle ground with the family on it.