Parents Screen time

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Aussie_coach

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Conducting a little research, for an educational speech I am delivering and was interested in in some real life parent feedback.

How many hours a day does your kid spend on their devices?

Do you have limitations? How difficult is it for you to implement them?
 
I am guessing this is going to vary widely based on age. You may want to specify age groups or ask for the ages so you can pool that information together later
 
My almost 18 yr old- no phone/screen after 10:15.

My 11 year old- limited screen during the week. 1-2 hours per day at most. Not too hard with activities.
 
My 9 year old during the week? We get home at like 8 pm and she goes to bed at 9.30, as soon as she’s done with homework she wants to watch TV. That’s fine

Weekends - I don’t have many limitations, we’re usually still busy on the weekend and if she wants to vegetate for awhile, that’s fine. She has no phone or tablet, and restrictions on what she can watch.
 
DD is 11. DS is almost 13. They share a phone, but because of busy after school schedules, they hardly use it. Even when they do, it's to text friends and family. No social media, but occasionally they can use YouTube.

We did have some problems over the summer with them taking their tablets into the their bedrooms at night, and watching Netflix/Hulu /etc. DH and I had to shut that down, and they are only able to use tablets with our permission. Again, no SM use. Even the kids think SM is out of control, since they hear classmates obsessing over it at school. Note: We talk about SM and that we understand they will use it when old enough, but how it needs to be limited (for both kids AND adults!).

TLDR: Less than an hour per week, and we do have limitations.
 
My 7.5 year old hardly uses her tablet other than on long car rides, she also does not have a phone. She is allowed to play games or watch something on mine if she is having a hard time at a restaurant or similar situation. She does enjoy tv and we really have no real limits on time with that, just try to keep a balance.
 
We use Apple to limit screen time on the phones... that's all. 1 - 2 hours per day depending on age. It also limits them after a certain time at night... 10:00 pm I think... they can request more time if they need.
 
My younger daughter is 17 and I don’t limit screen time- she has three jobs, full time dance, and full time college- she can use her devices whenever she has time and desire as far as I’m concerned. Before they graduated high school it was no devices after bedtime (midnight) on school nights, and when they were littler it was 30 ish mins of tv a day, no other devices, and maybe a movie on the weekend.
 
3 DDs age 15, 13 and 8. My kids barely have time to watch during the week- they are so busy between school and gym. And they have homework to do still after gym. I don't allow TV until they have done their homework. My older two sometimes have some time left before bed but they often choose to call a friend etc. as opposed to watching. I sometimes make an exception if they have a bad day at the gym etc. they can watch one episode before homework but that's rare. So I would say up to half an hour a day, sometimes none at all.
During weekend they sometimes get together with cousins and watch a movie. Rarely turn on the TV in our house. Youngest is probably the one who watches most.
 
My 14-year-old tenth-grader spends several hours a day using a laptop and often other devices simultaneously for academic purposes. For example, while doing math homework she will have the school's learning management system up in one browser tab, the on-line textbook supplement up in another tab, a PDF of the answer key in a third tab, and a graphing calculator app on her phone.
 
Until HS/Covid, 2 hour limit.

Now 10th grade, no day limits, I do shut her down after 11pm until 5 am for every thing but music. Its conditional on grades being OK and attitude.

And really, we went from a world where it’s was all about limit screens to guess what you are now living your life on the screens because leaving the house is BAD…..

I find for my kid, crappy attitude is related to excessive screen time. So crappy attitude will cause limits to be instituted. And I encourage, seek out things that discourage/limit screen time
 
During the week, I let my kids (9 and 10) do screen time when they get back from school. They are normally tired and appreciate that down time. After supper, no more screens. So that leaves them with about 1 to 2 hours of possible screen time. My daughter, however, gets back from school at 5:30, so very rarely has screen time during the week. She doesn't seem to mind though.

On weekends there are no rules per say as long as they participate in activities without complaining (walking the dog, playing games...). So they probably spend 3-4 hours/day on screens on weekends (this often includes family movie nights). I find it more difficult for my son to comply (non gymnast) than my daughter (gymnast).
 
My girls (now 13 and 16) had pretty strict screen time rules. No ‘leisure’ screen time Monday-Thursday and no more than a couple of hours of screen time Fri, Sat, Sun.

They were both fine with that as they were busy girls with lots of other activities to do and we are not much of a TV watching family anyway. No real enforcement was required as they just follow the rules which had not changed since they were quite little.

It all went really bad over the recent shutdown. How can you limit screen time when it is their sport, hobby, school, social life, only source of library books and so on?

So now I feel the genie is out of the bottle a bit. The rule is still no gaming or TV Mon-Thursday and no screen time for at least half an hour before bed.

They use their devices for music, but I do not count that as screen time as they are usually doing something else (but not homework) while they are listening to music.
 
It all went really bad over the recent shutdown. How can you limit screen time when it is their sport, hobby, school, social life, only source of library books and so on?

They use their devices for music, but I do not count that as screen time as they are usually doing something else (but not homework) while they are listening to music.
This
 
I have 2 kids with I-phones, 10 and 13. I use the screen time settings to limit them to 2hrs daily for entertainment/video games during the school week, although they can call/text friends. They have PCs for school work with Norton Parental Control to filter out questionable websites, but by the time they're done with homework and their extracurriculars, there's not much time left over for electronics. On weekends, I let them blow off steam on their electronics for a few hours. All devices stay downstairs where I can keep an eye on them.

I recently bought a timed locked box for the kitchen counter for them to put their phones in every night at bedtime around 9pm, and they can't take it out until morning. It ends the sneaking the devices up to the rooms, and no more fighting about it. They're not allowed to bring their phones to school.

Honestly, I wish I had waited until they were older before getting them any phone. Or went with an old-school flip phone first. It's constant monitoring, and they don't understand their brains are still developing which is the reason for the limits. So yes, the limits are tough to continually enforce. For summers, I have to come up with a different plan, like making them read 30 min a day prior to electronics, or enrolling them in sports camp or tennis lessons to avoid use of electronics.
 
Mine is 13 in a few days and has a phone which she does take to school for safety ( walking and calling For lifts) but school rules no phones allowed out in the day ( we are in the U.K.)

She also has an iPad but lImits for games/ YouTube are 1.5 hours a day. She is busy with school, only does gym once a week but does drama and many activities at school and is a competitive Figure skater! With school work and all of the above I’m happy for her to chill on devices when she needs. If we are around family phones aren’t allowed out and she’s always been good with that.

I think as long as they Are able to manage their school work and get enough sleep ( she is taking herself to bed by 9pm as she’s exhausted)and can put it down and not be obsessive - I think it’s ok.
 

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