Screen Time and Video Games
Screen Time is something we don't play around with in our home. We have specific Rules when it comes to tablets and video games. My kids are not allowed to use any of their devices until Friday. Yup I said it FRIDAY!!! When Friday rolls around you will know because the boys will let it be known that it is iPad and Game System Day. Its like a big celebration for them. Some people may think that I'm a little over board with my rules but this is what works for our house hold.
Now you may think ok they get their devices on Friday and they will be making up for it the whole weekend. Nope just because they get to use their devices on the weekend that does not mean that they get to be on them all day. My kids would be Zombies if we let them stay on their devices for that long. Plus my oldest suffers from migraines so he definitely has to be monitored on how much screen time he gets.
Since the boys pretty much only use their tablets for YouTube I have been using the timer on the YouTube Kids app. I set the time to how long they are allowed and once the time is up it will close out from what they were watching. I find it quit hilarious as you will hear Ayden screaming "NOOOOO," when his time is up. The same goes for game systems. Now last year we introduced the kids to my Nintendo Wii that I had stored away and we picked them up the Mario Kart for them to play. I normally set the timer on my phone to let me know how long they have to play but this past Christmas Santa bought the boys the Nintendo Switch which Jay has been asking for since the last Christmas. Anyhow we decided to set up the game system in the kids room. When I was setting up the game system a screen for parental controls and screen time came up. Lord behold there is an app on your phone that you can control the amount of screen time for the Nintendo Switch. Can you tell I was excited. lol I downloaded the app and set how long they are allowed to play. On the app it shows me which game and for how long they have been playing. It also calculates how much time they have played in over time for that day. On the tv there is a timer that will let them know how much longer and a bell will ring when Time is Up. It doesn't shut the game off on them but I can hear the timer and it will also show me on my phone. I do have to say that they have been pretty good with the rules.
Having set times and rules in place may not work for everyone and that's understandable. I feel that my kids need to not be glued to the tv all day and should be doing other things with their time. So playing board games, building Legos, reading books, getting out the house etc. are what we encourage them to do when they are not playing their video games or glued to watching YouTube.
Do you implement any Screen Time Rules for your kids? And if you do have rules what type do you for your family? Please share in the comments I would love to see what works for you.
Having set times and rules in place may not work for everyone and that's understandable. I feel that my kids need to not be glued to the tv all day and should be doing other things with their time. So playing board games, building Legos, reading books, getting out the house etc. are what we encourage them to do when they are not playing their video games or glued to watching YouTube.
Do you implement any Screen Time Rules for your kids? And if you do have rules what type do you for your family? Please share in the comments I would love to see what works for you.