Screen time and the summer holidays

[expatinspain]

How much screen time on phones/tablets do you let your kids have each day during the holidays? DD is 9, nearly 10, and it's become a bit of a battle. On the days we're busy and doing things it's fine, but on days where we're not doing much she wants to be on it constantly. Today I let her have half an hour this morning, then told her no more use until 6pm. She would stay on it until bedtime if I let her. I'm not sure whether I should just relax on these kind of days or have a set amount of time? Interested to hear what others are doing.

I confess my children (6 and 8) spend a lot of time on screens and I've been quite relaxed so far. I know other parents who ration their children to a set amount of time. When we're away on holiday they tend to be on them less as we're out and about doing things, but at home it's hard to drag them away. If we're not doing a day trip, I do make them go out and do at least one thing a day (walking the dog or swimming for example, plus playing in the garden) and they also need to do some reading and maths from time to time. They also spend a lot of time having very involved conversations with each other about their worlds in Minecraft. My son reads a lot before bed but he doesn't usually read in the day given the choice.

One hour, particularly while the weather is nice and he can play out.

delilahbucket I was thinking around that amount of time, but we're having a roasting heatwave here, so playing out isn't an option. Today we were out for a bit this morning, but in from lunchtime onwards. It's only just started to cool down at 9!

Ghosts Sounds similar to DD. I used to love reading in the day as a child, but I guess now technology is more enticing!

We have screens off between 10am and 6pm on school holidays. The TV is back on now but they're out on the trampoline.
Eldest has a phone and will spend all day on it if not encouraged to switch it off.

DS is allowed on his whenever there is nothing else going on.

However, of his 9 weeks off, nearly 4 are being spent doing his sport, two we are on holiday and one we have people staying with us- so very little time to just vegetate.

Mine are allowed tv until breakfast. Then they have to do something useful, something sporty and something reading/maths. Repeat after lunch. Any arguing over who had longer and it gets turned off.

They're also allowed ipad during hospital appointments without needing to earn it.

We bought DD a new game and told her we wouldn't help her with it so she's done an awful lot of reading recently

TV is on in the morning and then again at the end of the day. Maybe a bit of x box for DS if he wants and if he and a mate ask for FIFA.

I’d say we possibly have about 1/2 hours in a day sometimes less and sometimes none at all.

Today we made salads, played on the trampoline, played footy, visited Grannie and played in the pool. Both have read and one has written to their pen friend.

Mine have had loads of screen time today and yesterday. Our south-facing garden has zero shade and it's been way too hot most of the day. So loads of screen time because they've needed the chill, to be honest. In between that DS2 had nap time (when DS1 read/drew pictures for a couple of hours), violin practise/playing with Lego and they've had a cooling bath. Later this holiday DS1 will spend a week at music camp where no devices are allowed, and we'll be in the Lakes for about two weeks when screen time will be bare minimum. So it'll balance out by the end

Zelda To be fair to DD, she spent the first three weeks of the holidays in the Cotswolds doing water sports, riding, cycling etc, so barely had any screen time. I think it will probably balance out too. The kids here are on holiday for 11 weeks, so it's almost impossible to not have days with too much screen time! The holidays are too long!!

I've been here on my own with DS and I've got a filthy cold, so it's all gone to hell here so far - I've made a few half-hearted attempts to get him off screens but it's been far too hot to do much else. He went to play out with a friend yesterday but came home after about an hour because it was just too hot. He's had a friend here for the day today and they've shuttled between screens, bikes, RC cars and Nerf guns, which is fine by me.

We have bits and pieces of TV but, today we have also

1. Made smoothies
2. Built and decorated a cardboard house
3. Went to see my friend who highlighted my hair (kids played, did colouring in and ate a packed lunch)
4. Popped to local shop
5. DD went to a party
6. DCs played together quite a bit - trampoline and imaginary play - and played some board games with me
7. They went out on their bikes while I watched them.

TV fills the gaps between other stuff, half an hour here and there. We don't have consoles except a wii which is rarely used and DH plats on his xbox late at night. DCs are exhausted from the end of term, hot and bothered... A few programmes a day or film doesn't do any harm. We don't have it on all day in the background.

Exactly expatinspain, it'll all balance out. Sounds like a wonderful holiday you've got planned!

Watching with interest. I set app limits on 11yr old DS2s phone on Monday which resulted in a major tantrum which was really quite something and was proofin itself that this was well overdue. One hour on gaming and downtime between 10 and 4. Off totally between 7pm and 8am. I haven't limited social media as I don't want him to be unable to pick up messages if friends are going out or suggesting something social but it still is ending up with far too much screen time being totalled. I may have to limit the messaging too in due course. It seems an endless battle but it is already after only having it for 6 months his go to place as soon as he has a moment of boredom. I think he is already addicted to the swiping and unable to amuse himself as a result. An hour a day seems reasonable but I can't work out how to set a total limit on an iPhone - only per apps. (Any help welcomed!)

How do you set limits on apps marl?

It's only the 1st day of the holidays here but I'm definitely limiting screen time. Mine are vile if they are left to choose how much tv/tablet time to have. Today they were outside playing on trampoline and with water. Plus some reading, then after dinner we watched a film together. They were lovely all day and easy at bedtime fast asleep by 830. Mine are 10 and 7.

I have a South facing garden with zero shade but this year bought a pop up gazebo, it's been fantastic. Lovely cool area for them to chill out and play under. Was only £40 from Aldi, and I can put up and down on my own :)

Oooh @nocutsnobuttsnococonuts - do Aldi still do it?

I think it depends on what you expect them to do in the meantime.

Reading the posts already on here, the consensus seems to be that if a family is busy (holidays or activities) NO ONE expects to be on a screen.
But if no one is doing anything, it's a different thing.

It's all very well as parent to say "don't sit on your phone/screen/game all day". That's totally reasonable. But it's not unreasonable for the kid to say "ok, what are we doing instead?"
Lots of suggestions above about what to do as an alternative.

Expatinspain you go into settings-screentime and go to app limits. You can set a passcode so your DC can't undo it. I figured that ultimately it would save lots of nagging.

I'm not sure how screen time is going to go. In term time they barely have time. I'm planning on taking the first week easy, letting them use screens if they want to. They prefer to be outside with friends so on those bad weather days I don't mind the using screens a bit.

No hard and fast rules here. We’re out and about most days so a few hours in the morning (DS wakes between 5 and 6 most days) and then the same in the evenings-unless the neighbours are playing out. If it’s a miserable wet day and we’ve got no plans then I’m happy for him to have free reign with breaks. He’s 10.

I think it's harder with an only child as well. If there's a sibling to play/argue with, it's easier to distract them, but I've only got the one, and if his friends aren't around and he's stuck at home it's harder to entertain him. He's going on 13, so the days of making a giant Brio track or messy painting in the garden are long gone :(

I agree about it being more of a challenge to entertain an only child spiderlight!

DD is on her phone now, but we'll be out this afternoon (I'm sure she'll be on it again this evening!) and at the beach all day tomorrow, so I'm being more relaxed.

I think with the holidays here being so long, an hour per day is just not doable every day as inevitably we are going to have lazy days at home. She's got some school work to do and obviously we do other stuff too, like play games, watch a movie, crafts and independent play for her, but that doesn't fill the whole day. I'm just going to be relaxed about it, but make sure the phone stays at home on days out and is not used for hours and hours straight.

ds is an only child as well - and yes it's hard. Ive been allowing a few short bursts of screen time a day - 20 minutes at a time. We do other activities in between and he also loves his trampoline. Today he has a friend over but that child is screen obsessed! Im letting them have 20 minutes now then they need to go in the paddling pool I spent ages filling!

DS is nearly 13, I don’t limit his screen time as he is very good at self regulating. Over the summer he has two weeks at soccer camp, four goalkeeping camps and we’re away for two weeks so he’ll be kept plenty busy doing other things.