Parents always have opinions, experiences, and guilt around this one but some always know where to draw the line....
I remember giving my kids too much screen time...My parents in law would complain non stop and i was defiant that no one had the right to tell me how to do it....Was it not me that needed me time and no one stayed long enough with the kids? Screen time was perfect until the school told me something that reset my head, they said my Bambinos had concentration problem and they asked me ''Are they watching too much TV?''
Thank God i had enough time to correct that mistake.....You might be making same...
Lets talk about it!
What they don't know is that allowing such gradually becomes addiction and distraction.
ReplyDeleteMy children don’t spend much time watching tv, they prefer playing games on phones and tablets but my eldest daughter likes TikTok a lot and I don’t like it. I have uninstalled the app. I think it makes them lose concentration in class but at home it helps keep the house “sane”
ReplyDeleteWhenever the conversation around children and screen time comes up, I always smile because I think we sometimes focus so much on the screen that we forget to look at the whole child.
ReplyDeleteAs a single mum of two girls, I have learnt that balance is everything. My children have screen time, yes, but screens are not their whole world. In our home, weekends start with chores, market time, cooking together, laughter, music, and sometimes just going downstairs to play with the dog. They have responsibilities, they have family time, they have conversations with me, and they have time to simply be children.
I have rules around what they watch and how they use their devices. I check in, I ask questions, & sometimes I randomly check their phones because trust and guidance must go together. But I also understand that technology is part of the world they are growing up in, so my goal is not to completely remove it, but to teach them how to use it responsibly.
One thing I have always valued is giving them different experiences. During holidays, they spend time with my mum, their cousins, and children in the neighbourhood where they grew up. They play, they teach their younger cousins new songs, they interact with people, they attend church with my mum, and they reconnect with familiar faces. It reminds me that raising grounded children is not just about limiting screens; it is about filling their lives with relationships, responsibilities, love, and real-world experiences.
So, for me, the question is not only “How much screen time is too much?” The bigger question is “What else is filling your child’s world?” Because when there is balance, a screen is just a small part of the story, not the whole story.