Screen Time Rules

Now that it's summer I have decided my kids need some rules for their screen time. Screen time in this house means a cartoon on TV or sometimes the Angry Birds video game on my phone. Without rules, my kids will wake up and turn on the TV. Get home and immediately turn on the TV. Ask for a movie night every single night. Oh, and ask me all day long if they can play video games on my phone. It's exhausting trying to limit and manage it all. 

So I took some inspiration from the internet and created this page of rules. The idea is my kids have to do each of these before they are allowed to watch TV or ask me for video game time. And even once they have "earned" it, their screen time is fairly limited. Maybe a couple of shows and 30 minutes of video games at the most. During the school year video games are completely off limits on week days.

Initially when I rolled this out last week they complained a little bit, but then caught on pretty quickly.

Ideally, my kids would know when to turn the TV off and do something else. But until they develop that self-control and know how to restrict their time, I feel like it is my job to do it for them.

Also ideally, I would love it if my kids had so much fun doing the things on the list that they would forget about the TV!! I mean, I shouldn't have to tell them to go outside to play! I shouldn't have to time them while they color. It does seem weird when I think about it that way.......

But so far they are willingly doing everything on the list. It is so nice to see them grab a book (and ask Alexa to time them while they read. haha). I would LOVE if they got so lost in a book that they forgot about the assigned time and just read for enjoyment. Unfortunately we're not there yet.

We have been pretty busy so far this summer with VBS's and swimming, so there hasn't actually been a lot of down time where they are begging for TV. We'll have to see how this plays out later in the summer.

And that last item on the list is my favorite. Hearing the words "How can I help you Mommy?" is music to my ears! Even if they are just a means to an end.

 How do you manage your kids' screen time?