Screen & Gaming Time for school age minded children

[IfWishesWereKisses]

Hi there. I am a fairly new childminder and am in a quandry about screen & gaming time whilst I am minding my charges.

I only mind school age children and currently have a 10 year old and 6 year old sibling, a 9 year old and my 7 year old. The three mindees all seem to get a significant amount of screen time at home and their parents have no obvious screen time limits and have not suggested I impose limits. My mindees are not at all happy that I am saying no to own phone (10 yr old) and games console the majority of the time.

I have no issue with a little down time with the TV after school but am I being unnecessarily harsh in not allowing use of own phone and games console any more than 2 hours a week? I don’t want them unhappy but need to strike a balance between their wants and what the Care Inspectorate and possibly their parents will be expecting from me!

That is tricky but ultimately it’s your business so if the parents don’t like it they can take it elsewhere. I’m assuming you want the same rules for mindees and your own dc?
My dc went to after school club and am glad they are outside a lot rather than on screens.

I didn't allow any screens at all for school aged kids (but I only ever had them for a max of 2hrs, if I had them all day I would probably allow some Netflix or prime at some point) though that's my personal preference. But if I did I wouldn't allow anything from home because I wouldn't want responsibility for it, nor would I allow them to use anything that had an active Internet connection unless I was there with them monitoring everything as I know how easy it is to find things that are inappropriate by accident!

I have all of them for two hours before and three hours after school so a fairly hefty chunk of the day and I’ll have three of them for 11 hours on 3 days next week during school holidays.

They all love minecraft and want to play it and I have allowed it offline occasionally but I think I might have to allow a little more screen time or maybe try and lure them away from asking with something like coolmath or similar...that might feed their desire for screen time without me feeling overly bad about it.

I have pre-school children with after school so have no gaming and No mobiles allowed. They sometimes watch tv but as it has to be age-appropriate for all they don't really bother! I do allow some game time in the holidays if little ones are sleeping.

They might moan to start with but soon realise its the rules plus it's only a couple of hours so they either play together, crafts etc or do homework.

ETA it work for my kids too (not in their opinion obviously ) as they have a screen limit too

I would err on the side of extreme caution, for numerous reasons.

Unless it’s simply a group watching tv or film in plain view, supervision will be difficult. Even without internet access, you’ve no idea what a child has stored on their 'phones and devices. And they can switch displays very quickly. One of our local schools currently has a huge fuss going on about children viewing 'inappropriate' downloaded material and cyber-bullying. On investigation, it seems it was going on at the after- school club on the premises. What’s more, they were surprised to find it involved some of the 'nice' children (for want of a better phrase) who werealways well-behaved and had done all the e-safety classes, etc. In short, if you can’t achieve one-to-one over the shoulder spying then don’t take the

Whatever you do, consult with parents and set maximum times accordingly. Different families will have different limits. Think what you’re going to do when Mrs Smith says 2 hours but Mrs Jones only pe4mits 30 minutes. (And then Bobby Brown starts coming, and his mum won’t allo2 any screen time at all. What then?)

Remember, whatever you allow will be taken as their inalienable human right, and you will be "mean" and "so unfair" if you ever try to reel it in at all.

Be aware of people’s perceptions. You don’t need to look far on MN, or hear much playground chat, to realise how many people regard childminders as "lazy CFs who sit around, ripping off parents while the kids watch tv." A significant proportion of people seeking childcare will immediately disregard any provider who has the tv on at all. You may or may not want to deal with that particular group, but be aware it can limit your potential client base later.

My rules, No own devices including phones for safeguarding apart from who they could talk to an content you have the camera side to consider. If they walk self to mine text mum/dad to say I've arrived than hand over phone. It access by my pc in lounge selected sites for homework or games on school recommended sites.
When children start they often say they are bored and moan but soon settle to actually play and use their brains. I have craft, board games, large connecting straws, den buildings popular too - using blankets clips and small chairs. We do challenges like drawing wrong handed, who can build a ........ from lego, junk etc. we might also make things around what they are doing at school, pyramids, shields etc.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to advise. I decided to continue with the rules I had originally set.