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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I believe in "work before play" but I think I have a totally different outlook/approach to you.

First off, we don't view screen time as "play time" and it's not something my kids are entitled to daily. They can watch screens, but they don't have iPads and screen time usually means sitting down to watch a TV show or movie. And those have a finite length. Sure, I might say "okay you can watch 4 episodes of Bluey" because those episodes are short. But the only time we let our kids camp out and just let the shows autoplay is if they are sick and need to be resting anyway. Otherwise it's "yes you can watch this one show." And that makes it easy to say they need to clean up their rooms or put away toys or finish homework before watching, because it's a discrete thing.

Yes they whine and complain sometimes when I say they need to finish homework or chores before playing (or watching TV, which again, I don't view as a play activity). Oh well. Kids whine sometimes. If they straight up refuse, then they don't get the play or screen reward, it's an easy built in consequence.

Sometimes they will resist doing the "work" because they are tired, and I can see that they are genuinely very tired. This most often happens in the afternoon or evening after a busy day of school or other activities. In those cases, I will sometimes acknowledge that they are reasonably worn out, and let them watch TV as a way to rest or relax. It still has a time limit on it (we never watch TV without a set time limit). And we might allow them to postpone certain chores until the next day if it's clear they need to rest and the chores aren't urgent. Or sometimes we'll help them complete the chore if they need some help. It's important to remember that kids often work really hard at school and they need breaks just like adults. If some nights we do takeout or put off the laundry because we're totally wiped out from work, we have to allow the kids to do that too. The work is the stuff we did all day, and sometimes you just need to come home and veg out a little to recover.[/quote]

Bluey? Come back to us when you have a middle school kid.  Even if you wait until 8th, the time will come when you have to actually deal with these issues.[/quote]

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