Screen detox-did it improve behavior?
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Anonymous
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I’m curious if anyone has cut off or significantly minimized screen time/video games for their kids and seen an improvement in behavior. We have limited screen time to 40 minutes or less for my elementary school kid due to an obsession with video games and anger issues after being told to turn them off.
Thanks for any insights. |
Anonymous
| 40 minutes per day or week? Our kids get an hour a week and no pushback when the hour is over. |
Anonymous
| 40 minutes per day |
Anonymous
Wrong approach Fully take them away Your kid is aggressive and you gave it back? Seriously get parenting classes No kid needs 40 minutes a day. Weekend maybe not with those behaviors |
Anonymous
Yes, but behavior got worse first before it got better. But it got better!! Hang in there, OP. Don't listen to PPs. They don't know. |
Anonymous
Why ? Wrong approach |
Anonymous
| That’s too much. No screens in January, then try ten minutes once a week. |
Anonymous
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Taking away screens made a huge difference for the better.
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Anonymous
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You have to quit cold turkey, none of this 40 min per day nonsense. If you are still allowing daily screen time, it is still controlling them. They are count8ng down the minutes until they can get on and when it’s down they are let down. Their brains aren’t able to move past it and just stop finding other ways to entertain and cope and get the computer thoughts out of their mind.
If you quit cold turkey, then they are forced to find other ways to spend their time and the computer/games no longer dominate their brains |
Anonymous
| Slightly different situation, my kids don’t do screen time (very rarely need it for school) and when we give it at home their behavior becomes terrible pretty quickly so we take it away again. Like someone said above, giving a little becomes about “when can we get screens again” rather than just doing other things. |
Anonymous
| If he’s being angry when ending it then it’s not something he’s ready for. |
Anonymous
| Yes! Omg, we removed all screens on weekdays (1 hour per day on weekends) and it was life changing. Behavior did a complete 180. |
Anonymous
| I kind of hate screens- but please - give parents a break. Parents need time to do chores etc. an hour or less a day screen time isn’t gonna hurt any kid. |
Anonymous
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Yes, no screens at all during the week, one movie on the tv (not an iPad) on the weekend. Like the PP, total 180 behavior change. It does get worse for a few weeks before it gets better.
I agree with the previous posters who said that any amount of daily screen time will mean it dominates their brains. Some kids are just more addictive personalities and get disregulated by screens. |
Anonymous
If it isn’t impacting a kid’s behavior, you’re right. But if it is impacting their behavior, you’re wrong. We needed to go cold turkey for a week (we used a conveniently scheduled vacation in a remote location). Then new routines when we got home, including no screens on weekdays. The “thirty minutes a day” was controlling our entire life - kid tried to plan it out, just sat around waiting for the time, whined for more, then would feel extremely insulted if we didn’t have time for screen that day because he has come to see it as his right. None of that was the moderation message I meant to send. |