Found out my 8 year old is sneaking downstairs to go online at 2am

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly - i turn the WiFi off at 11 pm and back on at 6 am.
I had a kid (older) who did this, and I locked up portable devices after he was caught. The devices were turned in and went to “sleep” in a locked area at night.

This sounds like a good idea. Plus physically moving the devices.

[Anonymous]

Physically remove the devices from her reach. Explain the next set of consequences if she does this again.

[Anonymous]

My DC9 loves to check weather channel too, he’s extremely scared of thunder so he wanted to make sure he knows in advance. We’re glad he’s scared of dark too so he won’t go downstairs alone at night. We used to change passwords for iPads and adult iPhones, disable certain websites ( YouTube) at his laptop but had to lift it since his public school uses laptop for homework a lot. I had to warn DC I would talk to his teacher during parent teacher conference, about the amount of time each student supposed to be doing homework on laptop, since he spent 5 hours on it. He shortened to spends much less time on it now like 2 hours afterwards, but it’s still a lot. We just have to constantly checking on DC for electronics devices usage. Maybe let your DD to check weather channel few minutes before bedtime, then take it to your bedroom, and tell your DD if you caught her again you’ll talk to her teacher.

[Anonymous]

Set up controls on your router so Wi-Fi
automatically turns off at night. I use a mesh system and can choose which devices turn off and when (including the tv).

Also, I’d take all screens away for a while—like a month. Partly as a consequence for fbehavior and partly because this is full blown digital addiction and she needs to find other things that interest her and give pleasure. I had a teen with digital addiction and trust me when I say that’s not too extreme a consequence, you need to save her from her impulses while you can.

[Anonymous]

She’s smart. I’d be impressed with her initiative. Fwiw smart kids can get around all of the controls we adults put on. A time restriction? My kids broke in and changed the clocks.

My kids are older now and doing great btw. Relax and don’t listen to the hysterics on here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Set up controls on your router so Wi-Fi
automatically turns off at night. I use a mesh system and can choose which devices turn off and when (including the tv).

Also, I’d take all screens away for a while—like a month. Partly as a consequence for fbehavior and partly because this is full blown digital addiction and she needs to find other things that interest her and give pleasure. I had a teen with digital addiction and trust me when I say that’s not too extreme a consequence, you need to save her from her impulses while you can.

Take away screens for a month? Are you insane? Can you go a day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She’s smart. I’d be impressed with her initiative. Fwiw smart kids can get around all of the controls we adults put on. A time restriction? My kids broke in and changed the clocks.

My kids are older now and doing great btw. Relax and don’t listen to the hysterics on here

Are you kidding? An 8 year old isn't sleeping. Initiative is fine and all, but the intense lack of self-control isn't great.

No parent should be rolling over and letting their kid walk all over them. There are always stronger parental controls you can enforce - I work in computing, I would know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take the device every night! Lock it up if you need to. What kind of alarm does she have? If it’s Alexa I would take that away too

She has a Fitbit watch with a vibrating alarm. We do have a home desktop that she could use, but I do like the idea of turning off wifi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC9 loves to check weather channel too, he’s extremely scared of thunder so he wanted to make sure he knows in advance. We’re glad he’s scared of dark too so he won’t go downstairs alone at night. We used to change passwords for iPads and adult iPhones, disable certain websites ( YouTube) at his laptop but had to lift it since his public school uses laptop for homework a lot. I had to warn DC I would talk to his teacher during parent teacher conference, about the amount of time each student supposed to be doing homework on laptop, since he spent 5 hours on it. He shortened to spends much less time on it now like 2 hours afterwards, but it’s still a lot. We just have to constantly checking on DC for electronics devices usage. Maybe let your DD to check weather channel few minutes before bedtime, then take it to your bedroom, and tell your DD if you caught her again you’ll talk to her teacher.

It's not a fear thing, it's just interesting to her. Like how other kids might play Roblox or Minecraft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She’s smart. I’d be impressed with her initiative. Fwiw smart kids can get around all of the controls we adults put on. A time restriction? My kids broke in and changed the clocks.

My kids are older now and doing great btw. Relax and don’t listen to the hysterics on here

Are you kidding? An 8 year old isn't sleeping. Initiative is fine and all, but the intense lack of self-control isn't great.

No parent should be rolling over and letting their kid walk all over them. There are always stronger parental controls you can enforce - I work in computing, I would know.

Sure, she can address this but my point is no one should be getting hysterical over this or taking away screens for a month. Context is important.

You work in ‘computing’. Huh? I work in tech myself and my kids were able to get around every single mesh, etc control my dh and I (he’s also in tech) set up. Fast forward, my dc are both at top 20 colleges and life is fine. An 8 year old losing some sleep to look at the weather channel is not something to get hysterical over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take the device every night! Lock it up if you need to. What kind of alarm does she have? If it’s Alexa I would take that away too

She has a Fitbit watch with a vibrating alarm. We do have a home desktop that she could use, but I do like the idea of turning off wifi.

Well Fitbit is now gone overnight. And devices are put away and wifi turned off. This isn’t rocket science.

[Anonymous]

Weather. That’s adorable. Take her to the library to get her books about weather. Also shut off the wifi at night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last night I learned that my 8 year old has been setting an alarm to get up in the middle of the night so she can go downstairs and use the iPad or laptop to browse weather.com beyond her "screen time" limits that we enforce. She loves looking up weather in various cities and just reading about weather patterns and such, could read forever (and apparently does!)

How would you handle?

You need to set up parental controls in the iPad immediately. My 8 year old does not know the password to unlock his iPad. My 11 year old can unlock his, but neither knows the screen time passcode, which changes often.

I would also change the login process for the laptop so that an adult has to log the kids in.

[Anonymous]

That’s a pretty intense interest in the weather! Does she have time during the day when she’s allowed to look up things about the weather? I’d make sure to nuture that interest during the day, and also take the devises away at night.

[Anonymous]

Devices