Those of you who have successfully controlled screen time...

[WishingHopingThinkingPraying]

How do you do it? My kids are all 7 and under. The eldest especially us wild for access to screens. We've 4 kids and I've kept it to only 1 Amazon fire, no consoles or anything, but they hound us for our phones and use of the Google home hub and laptops now. I don't mind them enjoying a bit of Minecraft for example but Jesus they'd watch unboxing crap and play games all day long if they could. We need rules. So what works for you if you're happy with how screentime works in your house?

What works for us is alternatives.

Most successful when young - a roll of wallpaper lining paper and felt tip pens alongside lego figures, zoo animal figures and hotwheels. The imagination of a 5 year old when free to design their own world is astonishing.

Modelling the behaviour you want is vitally important - from an early stage. If you sit on a screen for leisure do not expect them to want to do anything else. If your life is rich with sport and hobbies, they will want to be the same.

I'm struggling with this because sports have yet again been canx & it's raining.

I've never let them use our phones, they have occasional access to the ipads but at the moment they are watching far too much youtube. Sometimes it does inspire them though.

Depending on ages if the child its also worth considering that actually some of the games are amazing.

My dd used to play wolf game... She had to hunt.. (amazing graphics) and kill elk to feed her cubs... Raise a wolf family, find caves etc.

Animal jam... Amazing world.. Made by natinal geographic.. Different lands, dens to be customised... Adventures to deserts, volcanoes... Water falls... It was amazing!

Then Minecraft.. Wow!! Endless learning and creation there... Building railway tracks, mining for iron... Getting bone meal to grow their vegetables!

Roblox.. Again endless learning and possibilities.

I think ultimately its about balance.... Dd was and is an amazing student... She would be allowed about an hour and would earn more time by doing small extra work..

She s an absolutely avid reader... Couldn't read more then she does, works really hard at school and gets top grades.

As a family we do loads of museums and usually pre covid a Sunday outing somewhere... So I can't see any issues with her being on screens as her down time.

The other one is slightly more tricky but.... Using the screen time as leverage, I've got a reluctant reader, reading and they need to read in their games.
They play alot of variety across the games they play.

Mine each have a kindle fire that I have limited the time on and once the time that day has run out that's it, they don't always use up all their time and also have to spend at least 10 mins doing an educational game that the school use