So I totally understand the “reducing the guilt” idea (working on that in a lot of different arenas myself, believe me), I understand why this is a popular piece of empowerment and encouragement, and I’m really glad to hear it’s worked out well for you and your child. The problem I see here is, well — “the plural of anecdote is not data.” Your child’s singular experience does not invalidate what and why the AAP recommends, because AAP recommendations do come from data, or at least the best data that we have available right now. Here’s a short article to read on why the AAP has the guideline: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/Why-to-Avoid-TV-Before-Age-2.aspx

This isn’t about shaming parents for “screwing up” their kids. Every now and again, yes, a screen is an easy way to distract and enthrall kids while the adults “deal”; I’m sure when I have children I’ll do the same. ;) This guideline isn’t so much a mandate, so much as an ideal we should strive to based on the best available evidence we have right now. Everyone knows you’re probably supposed to get x amount of activity a day and drink y glasses of water and eat more vegetables and eat less ice cream. This doesn’t mean that eating an entire tub of ice cream in one sitting is going to completely screw up your body for life. But we know that if you do it every night, it’s probably not a good thing. And just because you do it once, or twice, or three or four or five or umpteen times, doesn’t mean that you should just throw in the towel and say “forget it, I’m just gonna eat ice cream for dinner every night.” The same applies here.

We’re all human. Let’s celebrate that and be kind to ourselves in realizing that sometimes, it’s just not practical to go by the guidelines. But let’s not go down the slippery slope of throwing them out the window entirely just because we mess up on them.