ipad screen time

[iamworkingonit]

Has anybody got a system of managing how much time their child spends online/tv etc.
My almost 7 year old would spend the day on screens if he could.The end of a session results in massive tantrums, tears etc. I always forewarn him before he needs to finish up but there still follows a meltdown.
I am keen to hear how others manage this, particularly those with boy of similar age, and enthusiasm verging on obsession for all things digital,

How long is each session, how many sessions a day and when are these sessions?

My DS(8) gets 30 minutes iPad on a weekday, more at the weekend. BUT it is seemingly the norm opnow for kids to turn up at the door with their iPads and they just play in DSs room (school holidays, can't imagine they'll look back fondly and think, oh remember tha time we played thE Sims for 5 hours in a row).

We try to monitor the games DS plays. He only gets the free ones, we try not to let him get any in app purchases and the ones where you have to collect things are a nightmare ("but Talking Tom NEEDS the purple sunglasses, everyone else's Tom has them"). His behaviour can be shocking after a session but the strict time limit has really worked well to limit this. And I do use a timer. I do sometimes give him an extra cheeky 5 minutes if he's been really good.

TV - he's getting a bit less now. He could watch American crap kids telly for hours, now it's limited, again to 30 minutes a day. But he's not watched telly at all this week!

It's an minefield, all the screen time. While I want DS to have fun with his friends, that all they want to do is play iPad games is really sad. That there can be 5 of them all in his room, all playing different games? That really baffles me.

DS doesn't have his own iPad. I think I know what will be in Santa's letter this year though.

Mine are 8 and 11. No iPad Mon-Thurs unless they can convince me of a good reason - I allow it if it's being used to actually do/make something and they need the instructions/tutorial.

But mainly it's only fri-sun they are allowed on. Those days I let them on for ages and only make them go do something else when The Guilt appears.

When we first got them I had no such rules and they never did anything else. New rules work well for us.

Mine (6 and 9) play with theirs when they like for as long as they like. They rarely spend longer than about an hour on them and don't go on it every day. They mix it up with trampoline, Lego, moshi monsters etc. plus whatever school stuff/reading/music practice needs doing. They often share one iPad and watch stuff together, or play cooperative games.
There is no stress around screen time, and no issues when I ask them to stop.

Youngest (3yo) has perhaps an hour of tv after a morning of preschool, and a further half hour of tv after tea. No iPad/iPhone if I can avoid it, we have a couple of toddler friendly apps but these are for emergencies only!

Middle ds (6, nearly 7yo) is allowed the half hour of tv after tea each day and no iPad Monday to Thursday. On a Friday he's allowed an hour of an iPad game (or watching a video of someone else playing a game on YouTube why,why, why the actual fuck kids seem to enjoy this so much I will never, ever know), and more on Saturdays and Sundays. Although I always limit it to an hour at a time and we do other stuff in between. I don't really like him having iPad time and tbh I feel he does too much (he'd be on it all day long if I let him) at the weekends but he loves it....it's just about trying to get a balance that he feels is fair and I feel is healthy.

And then we come to my oldest DS (12yo) who is pretty much unlimited in terms of iPad time BUT this is because he has Aspergers and his way of coping with the strains and stresses of his school day is to unwind whilst watching YouTube stuff. I would be much stricter if he was NT. He is not allowed to do actual gaming on his laptop from Monday to Thursday. And all technology goes off at 9 and devices are not allowed in his room overnight. But otherwise, as long as his homework gets done, he eats family meals at the table and he attends a couple of clubs a week, I allow unlimited iPad time.

It is a tough one op. I know what you mean re the obsessiveness and some kids definitely get more obsessive than others.

You can go into setting and set a timer - you enable something!!!!

Anyway you then triple click the app he's using and it goes off when the timers up -

Look it up

Hi OP. My DD is 12 and gets 30 mins screen time before bed each day, depending on reasonable behaviour. That time is the total screen time for the day so it's either tv, laptop or minecraft. She gets longer sometimes at weekends, school hols. I used to find her behaviour atrocious when coming off screens so we've had to get quite strict about limiting time. She also becomes quite 'addicted' (I use that word lightly) to screen games and would moan about being bored and the only thing she wanted to do was go on a screen, tough really. I never give in and she knows I won't so would eventually she'd go off and find something else to do.

I'm aware that I'm much stricter than many parents but a lot of access to screens became very problematic for us so we had to draw a line and stick to it. It took months though for her to stop moaning about it!

Also, kids who come a visiting with their electronic devices get them taken off them at the door, the mum's have arranged for the kids to visit each other to spend time together, not sit doing different things on screen.

My son is 2.5 and would gladly be on it all day. He has 20 mins in the morning then 30 mins before bed. We count down from 10 to 5 mins left, we then ask him to 'press the button' sometimes it's a fight but he feels he is switching it off not us so most the time there's no tantrums.
I know it's probably totally different with an older child but it certainly works for us

On the weekend he might have an extra 30-45 mins on it as 'down time'

Some parents might think it's too much but his speech is amazing, he can count to 20 and knows his whole ABC along with loads of nursery rhymes, I can't take any credit for any of this as don't have time to teach him these things!!