Mom's Wisdom - Screen Smarter

Resident Submission by Sarah Workman

Managing screen time is a topic we all can relate to, especially as parents. As our children grow, we don’t want to look back one day and regret being more interested in our screens than in what was going on with our children. How do we avoid having our families become another screen-aholic statistic?

First, as parents, we must evaluate our own screen time. We need to make sure we aren’t being hypocritical by limiting our children’s screen time, but not our own. I believe that phones are our biggest distraction. On average, a person checks their phone every 12 minutes. That’s about 80 times a day. What is so interesting on our phones that keeps us from being present with our family?

Second, evaluate our children’s screen time. Children mostly use screens for TV, YouTube, or games on the iPad. Today, children begin interacting with digital media at 4 months of age. As parents and caregivers, what can we do to change this?

Change is not easy, especially when screens are so addictive. A great way to start this change is by creating a family media plan. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a template to create your family’s media plan: http://tiny.cc/mcu-family-media-plan.

When creating your media plan, the World Health Organization’s guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior in children under five is something to consider: http://tiny.cc/mcu-who-guidelines

In college, I studied the effects of screen time. This subject has become a passion of mine because I’ve noticed just how much screens can negatively impact our mind, body and soul if we aren’t conscious about how we use them. I now have an Instagram account dedicated to helping families screen smarter when choosing entertainment.

Ideas to Limit our Screen Time

• Use the Screen Time tools on our iphone.

• Move the social media apps on our iphone so we don’t fall into muscle memory.

• Place our phone in a specific spot during the day so we don’t have it constantly on us.

• Limit our screen time to when our children are taking a nap.

• Turn off notifications for items that are not urgent.

• When we use our phones, inform our children about what we’re doing: (“I’m checking today’s weather.”)

Ideas to Limit our Children’s Screen Time

• Replace screens with books, books on tape, podcasts, or playing music.

• Create a checklist before children can use a screen (Brush teeth, Make the bed, etc).

• Create a routine of when screens are allowed in the home.

• Create a Boredom Cure Box.

• To reduce the 1:1 time children have with screens, watch a movie together.

• Monitor what our children are doing on their screens.

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