How much screen time IS too much for little developing brains? Well, I can tell you one thing for certain, anything over 2 hours is waaaaay too much for my littles.
As a rule of thumb in our house we only give screen time to those who have earned it. When school is in session screen time is earned by completing all of their chores and homework and is only rewarded after dinner. But in the summer… oh man, it’s been a free-for-all and I am paying for it now.
We’ve been dealing with some serious anger issues over here, along with sassy attitudes and back-talking galore. So much back-talking that they don’t seem to know what back-talking is anymore. It’s apparently hard to differentiate between back-talking and just talking when all of the shows you watch portray back-talking as the ‘norm’. Raise your hand if you think shows these days need to seriously tone it down!
I ran a few different processes of elimination to test my theory that it was in fact the screen time coupled with the choice of show/game that was the source. I even went so far as to cut out red meat and other types of food, just to be sure. But at the end of the day, the common denominator was clear. There was just waaaaay too much screen time happening.
After an entire summer of trial and error I can say with certainty that we no longer engage in the following:
- Barbie tv show
- Anything Cartoon Network
- Use the tv as a gaming device
- Use the phones or tv as a mid-day reward
And as a result we have found the following:
- less anger between siblings
- less annoyed mommy
- less bullying
- a lot less back-talking
- better ability to self-regulate & keep themselves entertained
A few helpful tools I’ve found:
