Keeping the children amused was easily achievable about twenty or thirty years ago, as they were happy to be out all day in the fresh air, climbing trees, and running about.
Happily content with their lot, there were no distractions such as the internet, the Wii, or ds consoles.
Okay, there was the Nintendo Gameboy if you were a kid in the infancy of the nineties, but they were brand new and not commonplace like they are now.
The two small people of this house are like chalk and cheese. The 10 year old is happy to be out as much as possible, and could kick a ball about all day.
The 6 year old does like playing out, but left to his own devices would quite happily sit in front of his DS console for hours or watch dvds.
Which is all well and good, but a bit of balance is needed in there too and some fresh air and exercise thrown into the mix.
It doesn’t help that the longer children seem to spend on their game consoles, the grumpier they get when they have to come off. Or they’ll answer you with monosyllabic grunts as they’re too busy trying to make Mario race around a track in his car, or Sonic jump for golden rings or something.
So, ‘screen time’ in this house has been limited to half hour bursts with running about doing outside activities in between.
A hark back to the simpler times of no consoles may be a step too far, but it makes sense to restrict their usage.
Do you limit screen time or let them go on as much as they like?
Or notice a change in behaviour after they’ve been on a while?
Yes, we have to limit screen time here. During the week while school is in there is no tv/video game time unless all homework is done and they are fully prepared for the following day. Usually by then it is bed time. During the weekends they have limited access to netflix and internet between 9am and 8pm and only allow to watch a show or two. It depends on what it is they are watching, if its a full length movie or a short series of shows. Netflix and internet access limits are set through the wireless router. I just set the times I want to allow and its done. Limiting video game time is done through parental control in the Xbox console. Game time on the weekends is limited to two hours a day, which is probably too much still. So they can either use it up all at once or spread it out through the day. Most of the time they never use it all up but when they do they always ask for more time and the answer is always no.
We used to have the TV on pretty much all of the time in this house. But now I turn it off and its not on until the late afternoon! I urge the kids to now play board games, interact and if the weather is dry, then to go out and get some fresh air. Thanks for linking up #MMWBH xx