School online, Brownies online.....

[RollercoasterRita]

Everything my daughter does seems to involve screen time. School obviously, but after school clubs such as Brownies are now online too. The Brownie leaders are doing a fabulous job and my daughter enjoys the weekly meetings, but is it too much screen time?
Yes IABU if she is enjoying it what is the harm?
No, IANBU too much screen time will be damaging!

What else would you propose? How else will your daughter engage with teachers and friends?

I would have thought school is essential learning and Brownies really good for maintaining social contact. I think as long as she's having time off screens too it's not a problem.
I'm encouraging DD to do non screen stuff for a few hours after school, but she's still having music lessons online, Guides and a fitness activity - all online.

Social contact trumps screen time at the moment.

School online only works if it is a dedicated online school that has specialist teachers, a dedicated platform to deliver live scheduled full curriculum and pupils whose families are able to provide a laptop, calm and comfortable working environment etc for each child and of course, pay the school fees.
Only then it works and likely surpasses most regular schooling provision available, even most common-or-garden indies.
Same for all clubs, really.

@ScrapThatThen

Social contact trumps screen time at the moment.

This!

I think it's just something we have to accept right now, screen time limits are all well and good but not when we're in a pandemic!

Depends on age of child.

My eldest is 4. He gets to socially interact at nursery, so we are not participating in any of the various screen based activities that have sprung up as I don't want him staring at a screen.

Can you find ways for her to socialise carefully without screens? Eg can she meet one friend for a SD walk outside? Or if any friends live close would she enjoy chatting with them with 2 way radios (like walkie talkies but long range) - I loved this sort of shit when I was a kid.

Depends how much ohysical activity ahe is getting throughout the day. If she’s running around the garden / stairs / park in between leasons etc then is fine. If she is just sitting at a screen all day then obvs that is awful.

Isn’t brownies optional ? If you feel it’s too much then she doesn’t have to log on ?

YABU

Brownies on zoom is not mindless staring at a game or video, it’s engaging with the leaders and her peers. And there’s no other way to do brownies at the moment so while you’re of course free to opt out, that just means your DD will miss out on a social activity which I think is needed more than ever at the moment.

My dds refused any activities on zoom on top of school and brownies and guides. Their dance school tried to push online classes. I would have liked them to do the conditioning but the dds having none of it. Kids have a saturation point.

Mind you my kids are flatly refusing school assemblies on zoom and I'm not arguing.

They love brownies and guides on zoom as do I it's really fun.

What are you worried about, them getting square eyes?! I worry about screen time when it is mindlessly watching stuff, playing games where you get sucked in and time disappears. Socialising or doing activities with other people doesn't count as screen time for me.

My dds are online for school throughout the day and both do Brownies and Girl Guides of an evening. It does seem a lot. Brownies would normally be an hour and a half, but it cause between an hour and 1.20 mins.
GG I’d normally two hours, and still pretty much is. We have to be present at these calls, but they’re so long.
There’s no other way of doing it unfortunately.

How do you think the 'future world' will work, if not online?
If I were a betting man, I'd wager, that humankind will live largely virtually in not too distant future.