Melissa Arca MD, FAAP
The upcoming week, April 29th to May 5th, is
National Screen Free week. We can encourage parents through our practices and
through the media to use this week as an opportunity to make a media use plan,
set guidelines, rules and expectations as to how their family will use media
and screens for the rest of the year.
We’re living in a media world. No doubt about that. In fact, media
follows us wherever we go these days. And our kids are honestly the most savvy
among us. They get the hang of navigating iPhones and the various apps faster
than you can figure out what your password is.
Media is here to stay and for the most part, it’s a great thing and has
led to greater efficiency, communication, and sharing of valuable information.
But we knew there would be a down side. Our children are as fascinated
and addicted as ever. We absolutely must moderate their media consumption and
make sure the good outweighs the bad.
This is something my husband and I struggle with on a daily basis. We
certainly don’t want them magnetically connected to some form of electronics
for a good part of the day. So we have rules. Not always easy to enforce, but
important and well worth the effort.
Set timers
I have found this to be the best and least confrontational way to set
time limits on my kids’ media time. Whenever they sit down with one of their
favorite TV episodes or need to hop on Dad’s iPad for a quick Minecraft game, I
set a timer. I tell them ahead of time how long the timer is being set for
(usually 20-30 minutes) and when it goes off, we move on to another activity.
Aim for no more than 2 hours total screen time per day. When you think
about it, that’s actually a lot during a busy week of school, homework, and
extracurricular activities. To help getting them to bed on time…turn off all
media 1 hour before bedtime. Studies have shown this will help everyone get to
sleep (and stay asleep) faster.
Get involved
Know what games and shows your children are playing/watching. Be sure
they are age-appropriate and not filled with violent acts. Check Common Sense
Media whenever you’re in doubt as you can find just about any movie, show,
game, app, or book to determine age-appropriateness.
Play with them too. What about a game of bowling on the xBox or watching
their favorite show with them? Being able to take part in something they enjoy
will be a great time of connecting, instead of feeling disconnected.
Go outside
When everyone starts complaining that they’re bored, and why can’t we
play our favorite video game?…head outside. It’s the best cure I know for
whining, grumpiness, and complaints of boredom.
Be a good role
model
Want your kids to spend most of their day screen-free? Well, I hate to
break it to you, but then you must too! I am so guilty of constantly checking
my phone for new emails, almost to the point of obsession that it gets to be
ridiculous.
Put down that mobile media. Turn off the TV. And practice what you
preach.
As a bonus, do your best to spend the weekends off social media. When I
started doing this…wow…it was amazing how much more quality time I had with my
family and more time to get to some much needed household chores.
Have screen-free
zones
No TV’s or other electronics in the bedrooms. No screens (including, or
especially, phones) at the dinner table. I am so adamant about these
screen-free zones that just the other day I scolded my husband for bringing his
iPad into our son’s room while we did some bedtime reading.
I do not budge on this rule.
Be flexible
Rules are good but it’s also good to have some leeway. So, while I’m
pretty strict about our screen-free zones, I’m pretty lax about the amount of
screen time our kids (and us) get on the weekends. We love Friday night movie
night and waking up Saturday morning watching cartoons, drinking coffee, and
reading the paper.
Rules are great…but sometimes, they really are meant to be broken.
