Unplugged Kids
Before I had kids…don’t you love stories that start like that?
Wasn’t that a delightful time when you had all the answers and you knew exactly what kind of mother you would be and what kind of kids you would raise? You know, before reality - before it was actually your responsibility to do this - raise actual people - full time, day after day, for lots and lots of years. It’s laughable all the things we said with such authority before we were parents. One of mine was that my kids wouldn’t be in front of the screen all the time (ok, I may have actually said they wouldn’t be in front of them ever but who’s really tracking that level of insanity??).
With our first daughter there was almost no screen time for two years. Almost. She’s disabled and some of her therapists pushed pretty hard for some screen interaction/rewards and we allowed a small amount in that environment, but not much. Then her sister was born and honestly I needed her to be occupied occasionally in a way that held her still. She loves music so we started with music - which led into educational/music apps/shows, which led into other things, and eventually led to a screen as a babysitter, more than either of us were comfortable with.
When the girls got to preschool and started hearing about all the character shows I cringed!
I really didn’t want that (commercial) exposure in our home, but it seemed impossible to get away from. The more we slipped on our line in the sand, the more they wanted (no surprise there) it’s addicting and fun and all their friends are doing it...wait what? It’s addicting? Yep. That’s the truth; screens are addicting (Facebook and Google have patents on the details - check it out!) and they change your kids brains! There’s a lot of data now showing exactly what’s going on and the younger the viewer the more the impact. We recently starting making some changes in our home and are already seeing the benefits.
Here’s an easy to accomplish list of things you can do to get started:
Place a limit on screen time - and stick to it - There’s lots of tools and apps that can help you accomplish this. Be sure to include the hours they spend on screens at school too!
Make screen time a reward after chores and outside time and whatever other things are important to your family have been completed.
Turn off WiFi at night. Do it at the router and on all the devices. This will lower the radiation emitted in your home as all the devices try to “find the network” all night long - you aren’t using them so either turn them off or disconnect them and get a better nights sleep!
Download things your kids want to access/play/watch so that you control the content - this requires a bit of work but keeps the amount they have access to under your control and keeps them from needing to be on WiFi in order to get to stuff. Not having radiation blasting your child’s lap (and their reproductive systems!) is a good thing - trust me - we’ll write more on this soon!
Here’s a roundup of some of the articles I found helpful when prepping for this change in our home:
