We’re the guinea pigs for parenting in the era of screens
This isn’t your grandparents’ parenting. There isn’t any age old advice on kids and screens. We are running on good intentions here people. But good intentions may just be paving the road to…you know.
There is no one rule fits all for Kids’ Screen time Boundaries
What do kids’ screen time boundaries and Little Red Riding Hood have in common?
Why, “Crazy Wolves Wear Dresses” of course.
We can safely call the wolf who wore Little Red’s grandmother’s clothes crazy seeing as it ate said grandmother. But also, Crazy Wolves Wear Dresses is a handy way to remember how to prioritize your energy to give kids caring screen time boundaries – on Content, Where and When, then Duration – in that order.
What are Caring Screen Time Boundaries?
Here in Anetaland where we’re all about kiddos ages 2 – 10 years old, we know what a wild ride each day can be.
Some days, you’re able to muster up the zeal to make the kids do what you imagine kiddie Mozart would have done with their days. Other days, the only bar you want to meet is, “the kids are safe and alive”. We get it.
Caring Screen Time Boundaries is when you’re comfortably above that ‘be safe and alive’ level. Your goal is that the screen time nourishes the kids with all the benefits of having digital – entertainment, education and enlightenment. Take that for an alliteration.
Caring Screen Time Boundaries are work – but not as much work as you think
With child safety settings abounding, it takes just a bit of work to let technology help you to meet the ‘be safe and alive level’ around kids’ screen time. What may surprise you is that it’s not as daunting as you may think to get to the zone of Caring Screen time boundaries.
This week, we give you tactical pointers on where to focus your energies to get you to that zone.
Don’t kick yourself if you’ve been hoodwinked into thinking it’s all about time limits. Afterall, the word ‘time’ is literally in the concept. Also, try googling healthy screen time for kids and you’ll find gobs of recommendations about the amount of time! You cannot help but be misled. But not to worry. Help is on the way.
Here are 3 areas, in order of priority, to focus on to get to the level of Caring.
1. Content is King Queen
Remember this if nothing else: Crazy Wolves Wear Dresses stands for Content, When and Where, then Duration.
Content should be your highest priority. Managing the quality of what kids engage with on screens is the biggest act of care and most important boundary for their screen time.
If you can win on content, sleep easy. If you must pick one thing around kids screen time, spend all your energy on quality content – not on time limits!
It takes work to pull together quality content for productive screen time, where kids are entertained and learning. Luckily you don’t have to be the one to do the work! Let technology help you. Aneta was literally built so that you can get playlists of quality websites, apps and other digital resources (aka Anetapacks) that the kids can navigate by themselves.
2. When and Where of kids screen time is more impactful than time limits
No one can manufacture time and so time spent on screens is automatically a cost in terms of something else that a kid could have done.
Certain times of day and certain locations make screen time more likely to steal from time on other important activities. Like let’s say…sleep! Or playing outside so their tiny muscles and social and emotional skills can develop!
So instead of counting minutes and seconds, talk in a language anyone can follow. No screen time lying in bed, no screen time after brushing your teeth, no screen time at the dining table, no screen time in the middle of a birthday party.
The other advantage of using easily identifiable triggers related to when and where is that you may find that you don’t even need to set time limits. The universe takes care of it for you because time is finite:).
Time limits are important – but are easy to overvalue
The duration of time kids spend on screens matters. Lots of time means there is more opportunity cost of time, eye strain, and all the cognitive challenges like difficulty in learning to focus, pay attention, and retain information.
However, what counts as ‘excessive time’ is so caveated you might bo so far of base and not even know it. Further, if the entire screen time boundaries a kid has are around time limits, and not focused on the content or the where and where, that is not in the caring zone.
Yes, do concern yourself with Duration aka time limits. But only after you’ve tackled Content and the Where and When. It’ll be very impressive if you’ve got the energy.
So there you have it. The way to get to Caring Screen time Boundaries for kids is to spend your energy primarily on quality content, then work at the when and where before the overhyped time limits.
