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Ok, so here we are again in the summertime!! It is a beautiful time of year. Kids are home, enjoying a nice break from school. It’s time for them to relax and chill. But what happens when their chillin involves hours and hours of screen time each day? How much is too much? Do we as parents ban screen time completely? Or limit it? Do we keep them super busy with other things? Let’s dive in and see what we can figure out.
Consider how you manage your families technology:
Every family is different. Your schedules are different. Consider:
- What works well and what is currently working?
- Model the technology restrictions you expect from your kids.
- Screen time limits, will you limit by the day or by the week? Will they have things they have to do before they get on?
- Setting priorities for the day, instead of monitoring minutes, could be the secret to summer happiness, thanks to less time spent nagging, pulling your hair out, and feeling guilty.
- Each kid is different. Some of your teenagers may have a job, sports, or camps. Their downtime might be screen time.
Seek Balance:
- As you consider a new strategy for managing summer screen time over the summer, it’s important to seek balance. An outright ban on technology in the home can be frustrating to every family member.
- Is it screen time or downtime?
Know the difference between active and passive screen time:
- Are they just playing a non-productive game or watching a mindless tv show or YouTube videos? Or are they learning something? Important to know the difference and recognize it with our kids. It’s easy to see them on a screen and tell them to get off, but what are they really doing?
- Search out ways that they can learn on their screen. That’s a win-win.
Be ok with the occasional binge.
- Sometimes our kids are busy from morning to night and others where they have total down time. That’s ok for them to be able to chill for a day.
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Lemonade moment of the week:
The boys are away at camp. Miss them but get to spend time with Madeline one on one.
