Hello, and welcome. Today I'm bringing up here a very important topic, especially for those of us with children. Between school and free time, our kids are spending more time online than ever before. We all know that studies have shown the detrimental effects of too much screen time but in this current climate, it can be very difficult to strike a reasonable balance.
Right now, there's no running away from online classes and school assignments. And my husband and I are also woking from home on our usual schedules, so it's harder to control what the kids are doing. We have searched our closets for puzzles, books and toys they haven't used in a while and brought them all out. Art projects have been a hit around here lately too. But online time is still way more than it was before. And as parents, we should have great sway over how media shapes our children’s lives, but when we are all cooped up at home, this becomes a greater challenge.
It takes more effort on our part as parents to make this happen. We must set an example for our children and practice what we preach. This is bolstered by talking about media and its effects as a family. Talk through what a healthy balance looks like for your family and your desired lifestyle.
Some questions to ask yourself and your family include:
- As a family, how much time would we like to spend screen-free?
- Do we value family media time? What does that look like (ex: movie nights)?
- Do we see value in solo media time? What does a healthy balance look like?
- What does a fair amount of video game time look like?
- What does a fair amount of social media time look like?
- What does a fair amount of TV/streaming time look like?
- What are some activities that can substitute for time normally spent with media?
- How does online school feel? Does it ever make you feel burnt out?
Having an open discussion is a much better way to lay down ground rules as kids are more likely to stick to something they feel they had a part in deciding. Encourage kids to spend their designated screen time productively by introducing them to games that boost brain power (trivia, matching, puzzles) and shows with positive programming.
Once you feel that you’ve reached a good place in your media discussion have your kids put in writing what they agreed to. An easy way to do this is with the media agreement printables below (courtesy of Panda Security).
How about you? Which are the biggest screen time or media struggles your family has faced and how you overcame them (or how you plan to overcome them)?
This post was written in partnership with Panda Security. Printables and images were supplied by them and as such are not owned by me, nor am I responsible for their content.
Yes: I actually created a Digital Curriculum for students before the COVID19 which included topics such as spending too much time on social.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing at the #trafficjamweekend linky party
That sounds great. Not many people had the forsesight to do so before kids started spending most of their time online now
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