Ugh, mine have been on screens non-stop since before the break because we were quarantined and DH and I still had to work from home. They are back in school now but ask for screen time pretty much every moment they are home. Need some new winter activities.

It's fine, OP. Mine were, too. It is what it is. Hopefully back to school on Monday.

My kids are on screens all the time. I do research in ed tech and I think most anti-screen parents are sheep. Content matters. And yes, we all need to establish healthy relationships with screens, but the fear is pretty hyperbolic. I also suspect a lot of the “no screeners” are really just performing for themselves and others. It’s most certainly a mark of “good parenting” amid the overwrought UMC white parent crowd.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why I still feel guilty that my kids were on screens for most of the day. Guess it is better than getting covid at school.

Why weren’t they in school?

No screens in our house except for homework.

Who's the parent?

Anonymous wrote:The typical case of COVID that kids get would have been better. Both of us need to earn a living or there would be no home to be home from school in. It's a bad situation but some days that is just the way it has to be.

This.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why I still feel guilty that my kids were on screens for most of the day. Guess it is better than getting covid at school.

Have you had the flu?

I’m sorry, OP. Tomorrow will be better, I hope.

The typical case of COVID that kids get would have been better. Both of us need to earn a living or there would be no home to be home from school in. It's a bad situation but some days that is just the way it has to be.

Not saying it’s ideal, but unless you/they go truly off grid, our children’s lives will be fully integrated with screens in a way we can barely imagine. Like total convergence of cyber and physical. It will be their language, means of relating to friends, working, consuming, learning, and (Judge Dredd spoiler alert) having sex. I hate it, but really, it’s a futile effort. And especially in this particular moment when so many other options have been cut off.

We restrict our kids screen time. So I’m not crazy, I fight the same futile battle. Then I compare my screen time to theirs and it’s not even close (and that’s even setting aside the screen time I do professionally.) Screens are great.

Not sure why I’m posting this… maybe just, don’t beat yourself up over it. Or them either for wanting screens. It is what it is. It wasn’t all that long ago in historical terms when there were significant objections to reading (memory would suffer, people would forget how to speak and organize thoughts, people would become isolated in made up tales of storytellers, etc.).

It’s a losing battle right now. I’d let it go.

You know that they are on screens all day at school, right?

Anonymous wrote:Is it really better? I think that’s debatable. Plus it’s not exactly an either/or proposition.

I don’t think it is better. I don’t know.

My kids are perfectly content playing online with their friends.

Is it really better? I think that’s debatable. Plus it’s not exactly an either/or proposition.

I don’t know why I still feel guilty that my kids were on screens for most of the day. Guess it is better than getting covid at school.