How we screen time
Boundaries & playing within a framework
I grew up with Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Barney, Disney, Wizard of Oz, ET (nightmares), Star Wars, Mario Kart, Zelda, Lemmings…this was the screen time of my childhood, and it was glorious and not nearly as fraught as it is today.
As a parent, I used to have a lot of anxiety about screens. I could literally feel my reaction to them in my body. I still do, at times, when I look around and all the adults are on their phones (missed connections), or when they are misused around kids (like a lack of awareness for what’s appropriate, which I realize there are lots of differing opinions on). I thought I’d be the mom who just pretended none of this existed…no screens/no problems. I’ll even go so far as to say that I had internalized that as “good parenting.” (I didn’t hold others to that standard, just myself.) This meant that when my firstborn inevitably started watching TV - there were so many feelings attached. It didn’t matter what the content was, or if I was sitting with her and watching…her eyes were staring at a screen, and as a result I had failed.
And this is ridiculous - like, it sounds ridiculous in writing lol. But this was how I felt, initially, and I knew I had to get a grip on it because, as we all know, these things aren’t going anywhere - they are just advancing - and so rather than pretending that they don’t exist…I feel it’s our duty, as parents, to help kids wade through the sea of screens to use technology for good. Also, for what it’s worth, movies were so inspirational to me as a kid.
In reflecting on what helped me shift away from my initial thinking, and how we got to where we are now in our home, I realized that despite having screen time most days, we actually still have a lot of boundaries up around them…in a way that has given our kids a clear framework and completely eradicated any of the meltdowns that used to happen.
Below -
the rules we set and stick to for TV + fav shows
What’s up with my I-Pad
Screens & homeschool
The most used media in our home (spoiler: it’s not a screen)
+ strategies for reducing screen time for adults