Monday, February 27, 2017

How to Tackle the Screen Time Issue in Parenting

"All of my friends have iPads" "When can I get a phone?" "Can we watch SpongeBob?" "Can I play Clash of Clans?" If you have a preteen in your home, you have probably heard these comments or something similar. I am so thankful that my childhood was so much simpler to navigate as we didn't have cable TV and were allowed to choose between five channels to watch for one hour a day. Times have changed and I have come to the realization that I am quite tied to my iPhone – more than I would like. We had to come up with some rules for our home in regards to screen time in order to have consistency and an action plan. I read the book Growing up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World by Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane for some direction and would like to share some thoughts from the book.


The biggest thing that stood out to me was the answer to the question "How much is too much?"

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends no more than two hours per day for screen time for children ages two and up.

This is a general guideline which we have now adopted for our home and will revisit once our kids are older and using the computer for school work and have social media accounts etc. The average screen time for kids 8-18 years of age is seven hours per day. Seven hours. The concerns about this are numerous and here are some of the potential struggles: decrease in attention span, lack of social skills, decrease in empathy, less time in nature, multitasking leading to lower quality work, increase in online bullying, higher risk of sexual exploitation, obesity, irregular sleep and less creative play. In regards to online bullying, 42% of grade 4-8 students said that had experienced it; this is something I would not have handled well and I don't want my kids to have to go through it either.


One suggestion to help combat a high screen usage is to have digital free zones such as the bedroom (one study showed 71% of children have a TV in their room–could this be true?), meal time, car rides, and scheduled non-screen time for sports, reading and playing. Another recommendation is to have digital rules for yourself as parents and it is important to remember that we set the tone for our family. I have been much more aware of my usage and am being more intentional at trying to keep my phone away when we are together as a family – fortunately I use my DSLR for photos so that helps too!  Finally, bed times. My kids always tell me that all their friends get to stay up so much later but at this stage 8 PM works well (although closer to 9 PM in the summer). They are welcome to read for 30 minutes but they definitely do not need more screen time at the end of a long day. There are days when we may go over, such as our Friday night movie nights, but that is also intentional family time where we are all enjoying it together.


When teaching, I ask the high school students which social media sites they are using and most prefer Snapchat and Instagram. When I inquire as to whether their parents are on those sites, many say that their parents just don't understand how it works so they aren't. This is a problem as we really need to know what our kids are doing. Do our children realize that the "kid" in the online game chat room could actually be a 40-year-old man?

The average age in which a child views pornography is 11.

I think this is an important discussion to be had with our kids. The age at which a child can get a Facebook or Instagram account is 13 but several of my son's friends have it already and have tried to get him on. He's 10. No thanks.

In a world that is rapidly changing, if we are not sure what to do, I would encourage us all to err on the side of caution.

Although there is a time for screens (I don't think I could do extended road trips without them!) I see such an improvement in their attitudes and behaviour when we spend time out in nature. Make sure you put in the time to understand the social media sites that your children are on. And finally, screen time should be where you can see them – there is a lower chance of inappropriate usage going on if it's being done in the family room. Maybe you're thinking "Louise, your kids are young, you have no idea what you're talking about" and I hear you because I only know about the stage I'm in now. However, if we set the tone while they are young I'm thinking we'll have a better handle on it as they are exposed to more and more of what the digital world has to offer.


I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What is too much for you? What rules do you have in place?

Love,
Louise

Not sure how to tackle the issue of screen time for your children? Here's some advice from the book Growing Up Social



8 comments:

  1. We implemented two hours max about 6 months ago, I made a chart, (that doesn't get used very often), but is in a place that reminds me to follow it. When we sat our kids down (6 and 4) and shared with them the reasons why, and it really shocked me how our oldest responded. As soon as we told him why and shared with him that it will be easier for him to focus in school and have more time to practice sports and get better at board games and puzzles, he was actually excited. Now when we say no more screen time he switches his focus very quickly and says, "Ok then I am going to work on my slap shot" or "I'm gonna go build a cool LEGO car". I think by telling them why, they take ownership of the choice and know that it is for their benefit, and that it is not a punishment.

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    1. Our kids totally get it too. I think they're thankful it's 2 hours because being at school all day plus sports, there's not much more time that they'd actually want. Nya is our trickiest one but she gets it and it's been good for us--she knows 4 shows a day and she can decide when she wants to watch them. She's busy crafting right now :)

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  2. I think its also important to teach our children what to do when they stumble upon something inappropriate, because it will happen. (Example: We were looking up slingshots the other day on Amazon and found a "slingshot" bathing suit, which was shockingly inappropriate for our 6 year old). But it opened up the conversation about how to handle those types of situations.

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    1. Totally! Have you read the book Good Pictures, Bad Pictures? I liked going through it with my kids. I never thought "slingshot" could bring up pictures!

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  3. Anonymous6:39 PM

    All I want to know: is this a plug for the book? I didn't know Gary co-authored a book.

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    1. He also wrote Love Languages ;) I'm thinking if Gary wrote so many books he wouldn't be teaching right now. As for whether I'm recommending the book, I think it's an easy read and there's such a need for more books on this topic!

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  4. We just can't, it's not worth the fight to put it away. We don't do screens during the week and the kids get computer time on weekends. In winter they watch more, but maybe two hours a week? We find it takes us a day to "recover" from screen time, when R just constantly asks "can I play prodigy?" Drives me nuts. Sometimes they play on my phone for long drives or if it's been a day of chores with twenty stops and I need a reward.

    I'm scared it will become such a big deal my kids will obsess over screen time as they get older. But I love them being "bored" and the awesome games and interactions it brings.

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    1. Totally! Loved being without wifi on holidays. My kids are super active (as yours are) so they can stay so busy and I know they will join many teams which makes me happy keeping them active and busy. That said, as teenagers? I'm so nervous. Especially about Nya...I do think there must be more cyber bullying directed towards females. Oh well, one day at a time! And I so admire you on no screen time...I remember you were without a TV for so long.

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