We are one of those families that doesn’t really do tech with kids. This was a conscious decision we made before our daughter was born, and we’ve really enjoyed it. However, this doesn’t mean we’re no tech, and, to be honest, we’ve found that to be a bit problematic lately.
Though I’ve never written them down before writing this, our tech rules/goals are basically:
- No more than 1 hour of tv a day
- We only watch TV together
- No use of other tech for kiddos
- Facetime doesn’t count
…and we’ve broken just about all of these rules. We’d been excellent at the time restraint, until this year of epic back-to-back sicknesses where I couldn’t even get up. Plus we’ve gotten back in the habit of watching nearly every day—that adds up to 7 hours a week; yikes! We mostly only watch together…except a few times when we’ve really needed her out of the way so we can do other things. She takes our phones for music, and to (incessantly ask if she can) look at pictures.
just a 
smattering of 
her lovely photography
The results of our rule breaking—as difficult as it was to do, and as innocent as it seemed—has been a child who always screams and cries when her hour is up, no matter how much we warn her. Also, a child who constantly asks to see pictures on our phones, and who gets mad when she doesn’t get to use phones whenever she wants. This behaviors sucks; but it’s our own fault.
All research suggests that any type of tech media consumption negatively impacts us, hands down. I didn’t know (until too late) that it’s also recommended that children under 2 don’t watch any TV! Despite being pretty low-tech, we’re still seeing the negative results.
So, we want to reverse things. We firmly believe that, when it comes to any ‘fight’ with a child, the sooner you stick to your guns, and spend the days, weeks or months working through it, the better off you’ll be in the long run. The smaller they are, the less time it will take to change habits.
Our new, additional, goals are:
- Just say ‘no’ to looking at pictures
- TV twice a week, at most (still for 1 hour)
- She can only watch on Friday and Saturday
- Spend more time reading, and less on our phones, to set a good example
Since tech is so prevalent, and it seems most people want to change something about their children’s technology usage, I would like to challenge you to make just one tech-specific goal that you want to change. They will cry. They will ask about it a lot. But I promise, this fight is better fought now, than after 5 or 10 years of bad habits. Here are some potential goal suggestions:
- Reduce tv time to specific days, or hours per week
- Make a rule that kids can only watch TV if they have at least one other person watching with them (so it’s less passive)
- Reduce the number of screens in your home—TVs, iPods, or tablets
- Look at the time your kids use tech, and see if you can replace that with outdoor time, reading, playing, projects, helping around the house, or playing with friends
When we last knocked back Gwendolyn’s tech-consumption time, we noticed a big difference. When she didn’t expect TV, she didn’t ask all the time; so we didn’t have to fight about whether or not we would watch. Not fighting meant we were all getting along better, and having more fun. This brought the general spirit up in the house, and it was really pretty blissful. I’m disappointed we have regressed, but we were very, very sick, so I’m just accepting it, and moving forward!
Do you have any more suggestions for lessoning the amount of tech-time in your household? Please, share any tips and tricks! And to anyone intimidated the change their kids’ habits—you can do it! You really, really can. It will absolutely be worth it to have more peace, and less arguing in your home. At least that’s how it’s been in the past for us—I’m hoping it’ll the same as we start implementing our new changes! Wish us luck.
