How much screen time for 7 year old?

[AliceMay55]

I have 7 yr old twins (DS and DD). Although they seem to get more or less same screen time, I’m beginning to worry about DS. He talks a lot, sometimes obsessively about things. Pokémon cards until I banned them a few months ago, now it’s Roblox. He is very talkative and I’m being told he is easily distracted in school. is screen time causing all this?

He gets tv time for 2-3 hrs Friday night. Similar duration over the weekend too. Weekdays, he listens to a bedtime story on the iPad - no tv, nothing else. Is this too much?

Doesn't sound too bad to me (at all!). Is it tv rather than tablet? As I think tv (and movies at this age, I suspect) is better in terms of focus.

Is his obsessiveness getting in the way of friendships or similar? As another way to frame obsessiveness is passion. If it's not impeding him, is it a problem? How bad is his distractibility? What are the school trying at the moment to help him with this, and have they offered any tips as to how you can support them?

From your message you are focusing on the wrong things. He’s hyper focusing on things - banning them isn’t going to help! Is there a reason you banned Pokémon cards? They’re great for helping with reading and maths if you actually pay attention to them with him.

There might well be something going on in his head and if you’re concerned then it’s worth talking to school about but don’t just take away anything the poor kid focuses in on.

Roblox for a 7yo.
Desensitising and normalising violence at age 7 is beyond me

The screen time is a bit much for me but meh not excessive.

The bed time story makes me a bit sad though. Why don't you read with your kid

I also have B/G 7 year old twins.

I introduced a screen time system. They have to "earn" screen tokens by doing other things e.g. reading, tidying room, music practice, sports, attending clubs etc... each token is 10 minutes and like-for-like screen time.

So 3 hours of TV on a friday night would required 3 hours of "other" activities to earn that time.

Both have tablets and can listen to audiobooks in bed on them.

It's quite normal for 7 year olds to get obsessed and talk too much about things. My daughter loves some game on the tablet and kept trying to talk about it all the time. I just nicely explained that although she might find it fascinating, other people will not be interested, so to check if someone wants to talk about it first before talking. She has got much better. I started talking to her about quantum physics which she has no interest in and she got the message 😂

Why ban Pokemon cards?? Mine love those too, and again had to learn not to obsessively talk about them unless the other person is also interested.

My twins aren't allowed to play Roblox!

Visiting my 22 year old son this weekend. He's asked us to take his Pokemon cards with us. Three boxes. Thinks some of them might be worth selling.

Meh there are loads of games on Roblox that aren't violent. And I'm sure people have been saying this kind of stuff since forever, I remember all the pearl clutching about bloody power rangers 😂

We read with both the children. DS listens to another bedtime story.