Like countless other parents around the country, I reach for the TV remote at dinner time. But unlike what I guiltily imagine to be many others, it’s not to turn the box off. On the contrary, it’s that tempting red ‘on’ button that I’m itching to press.

You see, weeknight dinner time equals TV time at my house. And it’s me, not the little ones, advocating it. Put simply, without the theme song for ABC 4 Kids’ Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom, I doubt my girls and I would even know that it’s tea time. We might as well just set another place at the table for Nanny Plum and the Wise Old Elf.

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It has not always been this way. Pre-kids, the TV never got a look-in at dinner time. After a day apart at work, hubby and I would use our nightly meal to catch up. I was so staunchly against the idea of having the TV on during dinner the poor thing even had to stifle his laughter during this hilarious exchange about the very topic between Seinfeld’s Kramer and Jerry:

But how things have changed – add two kids to the mix and dinner time is certainly no longer a TV no-go zone. I am more than happy for my girls to eat in the company of Giggle and Hoot and Co. As for me, dinner time is unashamedly ME time – all 10 minutes of it.

Nanny Plum, dinner is served.

I might be sitting at the same table, but the girls know when mum is huddled over the weekend newspapers – still trying to catch up on a Thursday – while virtually inhaling her dinner before having to do the washing up, and bath and bedtimes, it’s best to leave her alone.

It was with some trepidation that I opened up the topic to a dozen fellow mums after revealing my little secret. I was desperate to find out if everyone else engaged in dinnertime conversations about art and philosophy, while I upped the volume on the so-called idiot box.

Half of those in the brains trust revealed that they too chow-down to the sounds of ABC 4 Kids, the news or even Family Feud. As one mum stated: “It’s on and I just zone out. The kids are always talking at me. It’s nice to have a bit of time where there’s just no one talking at me.” Amen.

Of the half who said they did not have the TV on during dinner, 25 per cent also described this as being “usually”, “generally” or “more often than not” the case. And most still used TV to keep their kids entertained pre- and post-dinner.

Cue that guilty feeling …

But there was still that pesky 25 per cent who consciously and consistently switched off the box at dinner to do things like “talk to each other”, “discuss our day”, “listen to music”, and even “focus on what we’re eating”.

This made me a little ashamed of my culinary staples of a blaring TV and mountains of newspapers next to my dinner plate. Cue that guilty feeling …

I hasten to add that with hubby home at dinner time on the weekend, we do “usually” turn the box off during dinner. And my girls are active and engaged in regular sporting and academic activities, limiting their TV watching at other times. But why do I feel so apologetic about my dinner-time TV habit? And why is dinner-time conversation considered so sacrosanct anyway?

I am heartened by the words of a friend who, in an attempt to assuage my guilt, reminded me that with my little one in my care 24/7 and the eldest pretty much an insomniac who is most chatty post-9pm, there is ample time to talk about issues such as school, books, friends, family and life generally away from the dinner table.

“You need that 10 minutes at dinner for yourself!” she implored.

Or as another mum so wisely put it of the TV-on/off-at-dinner-time conundrum: “It’s whatever keeps you sane in the end.”

Now, someone pass me that remote.