I'm having immense guilt recently over the amount of screentime my 3.5 your old is getting. We used to be a no screen time family before we had our second baby. Then once we had her, we needed some TV time or tablet time so I could put baby down for a nap. Now that my second is 15 months old, she's only taking one nap at around 11. Some days she takes a very long time getting to sleep, which would mean my oldest has been watching TV for an hour or more. I turn it off as soon as I'm done putting the baby down and then we have lunch. She gets a bit of quiet time in her room with books and stuffies after that. Some days, she also gets tablet time in the evening if my husband is late getting home and my youngest is being extra clingy and cranky.

I try to put on quality shows. She loves Octonauts and Tumbleleaf, occasionally Bluey. I feel terrible knowing that if she were in preschool instead of at home, she'd be playing and getting quality socializing, yet instead she's here at the house with us just watching shows. Unfortunately, putting her in preschool is way, way out of our budget, otherwise Id do it. It feels like I'm just surviving but to the detriment to her development. Am I overthinking it??

I should add, she's not at the house all day watching television. We go to libraries, parks, museums, she has playdates, we do arts and crafts and homeschool preschooling. I try really hard to meet all of her needs but I worry the screentime is offsetting it all.