Here’s What America Is Streaming to Survive Being Stuck At Home With Kids

“Frozen II” is our new virtual babysitter.

Yvan Cohen/Getty

The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

With schools shut down and residents under some kind of stay-at-home order in most states, millions of people are working from home, often with children lurking, bickering, and screaming in the background. Yet when Zoom calls are too important to ignore or we need to get through a few hours of work, we can always call upon a cheap babysitter who can endlessly enthrall our kids: streaming video.

Data from Reelgood, an app that lets users to track everything they’ve watched on streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, appears to confirm that more parents are relying on screens to keep homebound kids occupied. In March, its users suddenly started streaming a lot more movies and shows aimed at kids.

Reelgood’s data also shows that people are spending slightly more time on streaming services during office hours. This could be because parents are letting their kids watch TV during the day, or they could be mixing remote business with pleasure.

And who’s been virtually babysitting kids while parents let screen-time limits go and head into the unknown world of endless WFH? Some things never change: Between March 16 and 22, the top streamed kids movie was Frozen II.

This list is making me want to watch all my favorite animated movies again. (But not until I get off work.)

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate