I give up. My kids can have screens all day.
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Anonymous
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We have lasted 9 days trying to take walks, attempting to have them do some work. I let everyone just watch what they want, play nintendo switch, ipad, whatever. The house feels finally peaceful.
I don't think we can last 3 months of this. |
Anonymous
| Only the rich and privileged think they can. Mark Penn wants a reasonable 60 day plan for getting people back to work. |
Anonymous
| Yup the weekends are whatever at this point. I'm all for the doing what we can to maintain sane and happy. It won't kill him |
Anonymous
| You made the right decision!! |
Anonymous
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I found instituting a formal time structure has been successful. I had them do this for two days and by the third day it came as second nature to them with much more peace in the house:
8am - screen time 9am - breakfast 9:30am - screen time 11am - Khan Academy noon - lunch 12:30pm - indoor physical activity 1pm - skype extended family and read books/be read to 2pm - nap 3:30pm - wake up, outdoor physical activity 4pm - screen time 5:30pm - dinner 6pm - musical instrument practice 6:30pm - family movie/screen time 8:30pm - bedtime routine, story, bed |
Anonymous
I should add this is for a seven year old and nine year old |
Anonymous
| Gotta do what's best for your mental health. It won't last forever. |
Anonymous
| That's what we're doing for our 3 year old. She did about 35 minutes on Zoom with her friends. Otherwise we're alternating screen time with playing, but it's really hard. We live in a townhouse with a small backyard. Ugh. |
Anonymous
Your mental health, and your kids' mental health. If it's a rigid scheduled structure from morning till bed, that's fine. If it's TV from waking till bedtime, that's fine too. Do what works for you and your family right now. Now is a time when it is OK to throw out a few rules. |
Anonymous
| We are also doing a schedule with our 10 and 12 year old during the week. The schedule includes plenty of screen time, so there’s not so much push back during the hours where they can’t be on screens. But on the weekends, I’m just going to let them do what they want. Force them outside for some portions of the day and maybe insist on a family movie or game in the evening, but otherwise they are pretty steadily gaming this weekend. I’m curious to see when/if they tire of the screens because in normal life their screen time is much more limited. |
Anonymous
To me this sounds like "giving up my kids can have screens all day"... ! A lot of screen time in that "schedule" |
Anonymous
Also your 7 and 9 year olds take naps?? |
Anonymous
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For a 10 year old we are going to start:
9:30 am: breakfast (screen time before ok) 10:00 - 11:00 - math (25 minutes daily assignment, 25 minutes school online program, 10 minute break) 11:00 - 12:00 reading/writing daily assignment 12:00 - 1:00 pm, lunch, skype with friends 1:00 - 2:00 pm - 30 minutes reading a book of choice, 30 minutes vocabulary (teacher sends vocab assignments) 2:00 - 3:00 pm - art/drawing, online language 3:00 - 5;00 pm - free time, skype with friends, and exercise time depending on which parent is free to go outside (no back yard). |
Anonymous
Ha, five hours of screen time in a 12.5 hour schedule is not letting your kids have screen time all day. I don't judge either way but for little kids who aren't going to school or playing with friends this is not that much screen time. |
Anonymous
But, I didn't say I had a problem with screen time. I simply said that a schedule has worked for us, to keep the kids from going crazy, which is what OP was posting about. I find that turning them loose on screens the entire day does not really reduce craziness, but a schedule that includes screen time does. And yes, I force them to take naps because if they don't then they start misbehaving around dinner time or shortly after. |