My son is 9 and I generally don't set limits. I have set some limits in the past when it became a problem. Screen time in the morning impacted his behavior at school, so that got cut out. We haven't gone back to that.

He also goes to camp, most regularly low-tech traditional camps, but this year he will having two coding camps.

This year is the first year he's been playing outside until dark every single day after camp with all his little neighborhood friends. Before that, in order to divert from too much screen time, I took him to the pool most nights for a couple of hours. He could fill in the other empty time with screen time if he liked. So you could do something like that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are 9 and 12 (so JUUUUUUST outside your age range). They each get an hour a week. During the school year they get none.

Sometimes they want to watch different things and I pretend not to notice if the 12 yr old is watching during the 9 yr old's hour and thus getting two hours.

Wow. So if your 12 year old wanted to watch a movie, she would have to watch it over a two-week period? Sounds fun!

The kids don't watch movies at home. We're a very low-screen household.

What do they do all day?

What did kids do before the age of electronics? How about using their imaginations, being creative and playing? How about going to the pool, doing arts and crafts, reading, having a lemonade stand etc - are these really such archaic activities?

When I tell my patients to limit their screen time, ALL the parents nod their heads and tell their kids "See, I told you - even your Doctor says so."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are 9 and 12 (so JUUUUUUST outside your age range). They each get an hour a week. During the school year they get none.

Sometimes they want to watch different things and I pretend not to notice if the 12 yr old is watching during the 9 yr old's hour and thus getting two hours.

Wow. So if your 12 year old wanted to watch a movie, she would have to watch it over a two-week period? Sounds fun!

The kids don't watch movies at home. We're a very low-screen household.

What do they do all day?

They come over to our house and beg to play video games instead of playing outside. At least, that's what the no- and low-screen household kids in our neighborhood do. My DS hates when those kids come over and don't really want to play, but are just looking for a long screen fix, unbeknownst to their low-screen parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are 9 and 12 (so JUUUUUUST outside your age range). They each get an hour a week. During the school year they get none.

Sometimes they want to watch different things and I pretend not to notice if the 12 yr old is watching during the 9 yr old's hour and thus getting two hours.

Wow. So if your 12 year old wanted to watch a movie, she would have to watch it over a two-week period? Sounds fun!

The kids don't watch movies at home. We're a very low-screen household.

What do they do all day?

As much as they want. TV is great entertainment and a fantastic babsitter.

My 11 and 14 year olds have responsibilities - chores and summer reading, basically, and then they are free to do what they want including screen time. It's way more than summer but at least they are reading and doing helpful stuff in between. I also make sure they both have an hour of exercise -sometimes that is at camp or at the pool or else riding bikes or whatever.

No limits here.

one hour physical activity = one hour screen time

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are 9 and 12 (so JUUUUUUST outside your age range). They each get an hour a week. During the school year they get none.

Sometimes they want to watch different things and I pretend not to notice if the 12 yr old is watching during the 9 yr old's hour and thus getting two hours.

Wow. So if your 12 year old wanted to watch a movie, she would have to watch it over a two-week period? Sounds fun!

The kids don't watch movies at home. We're a very low-screen household.

My kids are 9 and 12 (so JUUUUUUST outside your age range). They each get an hour a week. During the school year they get none.

Sometimes they want to watch different things and I pretend not to notice if the 12 yr old is watching during the 9 yr old's hour and thus getting two hours.

Wow. So if your 12 year old wanted to watch a movie, she would have to watch it over a two-week period? Sounds fun!

My kids are 9 and 12 (so JUUUUUUST outside your age range). They each get an hour a week. During the school year they get none.

Sometimes they want to watch different things and I pretend not to notice if the 12 yr old is watching during the 9 yr old's hour and thus getting two hours.

That wouldn't bother me much; it sounds like he is doing other things most of the day anyway.

DD13 has no limits on screen time provided that she also meets any other responsibilities she has and does not disturb others in the house with the volume of whatever she's doing. So far that has worked out reasonably well for us, although in the beginning I did have to point out to her that maintaining her health was an obligation she had to herself, and thus she needed to take into account optimal amounts of sleep and physical activity.

One hour/day in our house.

Yep, same problem here. Well, first off we don't allow any screen time before 11am, so he is not allowed to do anything before camp. We just initiated a 2 day a week ban of any video games. Monday's and Thursday's he is not allowed to do any video games on any devices. We'll see how this works out.

If I don't place some limits, it's going to get out of hand.
He's at camp most weeks but wants to do nothing else from 7-9 am and 4-8 pm!