There is no way you can keep technology completely away from your children, especially not in this modern era. There are a ton of benefits that technology offers which makes it essential for your child’s growth. But that doesn’t mean you let them use it carelessly without any restrictions and we need to also understand the benefits of limiting screen time to our young people.
Your children are probably already quite active online, be it their online lessons, using Facetime with friends, Social media to chat or gaming on their consoles – it is pretty hard to be a young person and not be online for part of the day.
This year especially we saw the benefits of online – it was the only way to communicate with friends and schools taught their students across the internet.
How there are also benefits of limiting screen time for kids because they need other stmuli. Just yesterday my 20 year old university student daughter was telling me that online learning is really hard. She finds it tiring on her eyes and misses fresh air and just walking home her rented house to the university. Instead she is pretty isolated in her bedroom, online studying.
It is important to teach your child how to manage their time efficiently. One way to do that is by limiting how much time they spend in front of their computer or TV screen. Here are some reasons why excessive screen use can be harmful to your children:-
- It can affect their concentration span and their ability to perform well in school.
- Obesity can become a huge issue for children who spend a lot of time in front of a TV or computer screen.
- Watching too much TV or any kind of screen before bed can make it difficult for kids to fall asleep at night.
- Younger kids might face behavioural and emotional issues after spending a lot of time in front of a screen.
- Vision issues are most commonly caused by extreme screen use and can cause a ton of problems for your child in the future.
Knowing all these disadvantages of a lot of screen time doesn’t mean you will be able to just cut it out completely from your child’s day. Limiting screen time can be difficult at times especially if your children are at a very young age. To make this task easier for you, we have accumulated a list of hacks that you can use to limit screen time for your children.
- Discuss and decide appropriate usage limits with your children
To make sure your child doesn’t spend a lot of time in front of a screen, you have to help them understand the disadvantages of doing so. At the same time, you have to discuss the usage limits with them instead of just setting them yourself.
You can set limits for each day or for an entire week as per your choice. If you have someone else who watches your child, let them know about these rules as well. Having proper usage limits is the very first hack to cut down screen time for a child of any age.
- Get them interested in non-technical hobbies or activities
The best way to get away from screens or the internet is to find something to do that is much more interesting. This way it will be much easier to cut down screen time for kids.
You can get them interested in crafts or some kind of sports as well. Or if you want, get them enrolled in some kind of educational classes. If they have a hobby, make sure they spend some time working on that instead of watching TV or computer.
- Avoid putting screens in your child’s personal space
The main purpose of giving a bedroom to your children is to give them some kind of privacy. Though that is a good thing to do, you should probably avoid putting a TV in their room until they are a bit older.
Having all kinds of screens in the family space will allow you to supervise their usage in a better way. Even if you do put a TV or something in their personal space, make sure you can still control how much they watch it.
- Increase the time you spent interacting with them
As explained before, the main reason why kids become attached to screens is because they don’t have anything else to concentrate on.
You can reduce screen time very easily by spending more time playing with them. This way you will give someone to play with and thus they won’t need anything else to spend time. This is also good to improve your relationship with them and get to know them better.
- Make them work hard for screen time
Screen time should be a reward that encourages your child to work harder on their assigned tasks. Explain to your kids that they have to work in order to watch TV.
This will enable you to make sure that your kids don’t take screen time for granted. Also, be fair when they complete their work and let them enjoy screen time as promised. Keep an eye on what they watch in the given screen time as well.
- Have dedicated time when screens should be off in the house
If you want to set a good example for your kids, you also have to cut off screen time for yourself. You can do this by having designated “no-screen” times in the house.
You can always find other physical activities to do when all the screens are off. Having this “no-screen” time allows you and your children to get used to not having a screen to watch all the time. This will ensure you are spending less time in front of a screen as a family in general.
- Have a strict “no screen during meal time” rule in the house
Most parents these days work and take care of their children at the same time. Hence, meal time is the only time to spend with your family most times. That is why it is essential to make the most out of meal time as a family.
You have to concentrate on talking and catching up as a family during meal times. Switch off all the screens including TV, computer and mobiles while you eat. Focus on talking to your kids and learning about their day instead. Aa a parent as well, it is a good thing to spend some time away from technology and all the stress that comes along with it. I make no phones at meal times on of our family rules.
Conclusion:- Benefits of limiting screen time
So these are some amazing and simple hacks that we think can help you reduce screen time. Having a proper plan specific to your family needs and schedule is also a good thing to do. That can also immensely help you cut down on screen time for your children.
At the end of the day, it is important to be patient with your child and teach them about using less screens in their day. We hope that these help you control your child’s screen time efficiently!
In this post Northern Dad also shares his experience of managing screen time.
