6 yo addicted to device

[Mayorhumdinger19]

Just that, doesn't watch anything clearly - all very benign and actually quite sweet - cat videos, unboxing/reciews, science experiments etc. But the hrs across the week have gone up steadily especially we are now in the hols and behaviour is just awful and so out of character - in terms of seeming really, really angry all the time and strung out, seems to have no patience for anything - just shouting at everyone.

Tries to tell us its for quiet time but we can’t get him off it voluntarily when we do get him off he is so angry and also if we try interrupt him he is angry.

Yes I know it is our fault but please be kind as we have been dealing with this; https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5015622-to-ask-if-you-gained-weight-on-ssris?page=3&reply=133359127

The past 6 months have been so hard DH has had to pick up so much slack as well as working full time as I spent sp much time in bed between Feb and April and probably relied to heavily on the digital babysitter and now we are in this horrible situation.

How do we deal with this?

What is done is done but you recognize it. It’s time for cold turkey. Children can’t regulate their addictions.

no screens til teens is our rule. Make it yours.
Hope your recovery is going well.

Not read the thread but you need to go cold turkey. Obviously you know it’s not ideal so I’m not going to give you a hard time. Just get rid of the device. 6 year olds don’t need any screen time at all. Maybe some TV is fine. Less addictive.

Ps I hope things are easier soon for you. And well done for wanting to tackle this now. My older teens are screen addicted but it’s much harder to deal with at age 17! And he didn’t get a phone until he was 12.

Start afresh with strict set time limits in place and if he loses his temper he loses 5 minutes of the next session. It’s supposed to be fun not incite anger. If you don’t get a handle on it then he’ll be dictating to you. He’s a child your role as a parent is to guide him not just let him do whatever he wants because he gets upset when you don’t.

Cold turkey.

Just do it.

Deal with the fallout. Repeat 'this too shall pass'.

He will gradually return to equilibrium.

As everyone else has said, cold turkey. For the first week make sure you're out the house and busy each day as much as you possibly can so they're too tired to care.

Jesus Christ just take it away from him !

Just take it away. Try to get out of the house a lot for the first few days if you can and within a week DC will have forgotten the device and be a different child. Promise!

At 6yo you just put it up somewhere high and tell them it's broken 🤷‍♀️

Then point them in the direction of toys and the garden.

Cold turkey. Only we. Dts had kindle fires at that age and the negative behaviour from one in particular was awful. It was much easier to just take it away all together than setting time limits.

Pretend it's broken go cold turkey.

This happened to my dc. I limit them now. After school they have to do homework can watch tv and play then tablets at 6.30 til 8 latest then bed.

Holidays I give them tablet at 3 for an hour if we are at home then again at 7 til 9 but no YouTube. I allow them to watch YouTube on tv for hour max so they have to agree what to watch or both choose something for half an hour. And within reason if I don't think it's appropriate or simply stupid I won't let the, watch it

This kind of short videos and just auto playing the next etc is so bad for attention and viewing habits at any age but this is really young.

My two DS responded better to clearly understood limits and habits. Took us a while to find best approach but they'd get into a particular TV show (we didn't allow YouTube or tiktok videos) - say Octonauts when they were younger - and they'd know they were allowed to watch one episode or two (we'd usually have a 20 minute ish time frame in mind) and then it would go off. No arguments or wiggle room. We found the clear expectations of what they were getting and when it was going off really helped.

The problem with what your DS is watching is he just wants the next one and the next. There's no natural end point.

Ours also had specific times of day they were allowed to watch and would know that was it.

Kids are all about routines.

6 year olds really shouldn't be on line or devices. Can't he just watch a bit of tv with limits?

They're 6 - so you're in charge. Just permanently remove it, and lock it in the boot of the car, or somewhere equally inaccessible.

placemarking.

This. Cold turkey and ensure you have routines in your day and are actively playing with him.

Kids are all about routines. is absolutely true. Structure your whole day with no screens. Keep the tv off too. So many parents have the tv on constantly from breakfast to bedtime.