Most paediatric guidelines suggest avoiding screens before age 2, limiting to about 1 hour a day for ages 2-5, and focusing on content quality and balance (not just strict time limits) for ages 6-12. What matters most is what screens are replacing.
If you've felt guilty handing your child a phone during a work call or while dinner is being cooked, you're not alone — and you're also not doing anything unusual. In most urban Indian homes, with both parents working and help managing multiple things at once, some screen time is simply part of daily reality.
In many homes with domestic help managing children for parts of the day, screens sometimes fill gaps when supervision is stretched thin. This isn't a judgement — it's a real, common situation. The practical fix isn't to eliminate this entirely (often not realistic), but to be intentional about what's being watched during that time — pre-downloaded, age-appropriate content rather than open access to autoplay recommendations, which can drift into inappropriate territory surprisingly fast.