Holidays and Screen time - do you limit the time your DC are on screens (secondary/late primary age)

[lucyanntrevelyan]

I really feel at the moment that the screens have taken over our lives. We have collected an xbox, ps3 and tablets over the years, as well as a PC. My Y7 DS has drifted from one to another this year and not really put in much effort at school. He claims none of his friends are restricted and just go on screens all day (I know I shouldn't take this as gospel truth but last time we had an 'all my friends do it' type discussion it was about Call of Duty and it turned out all of the 8 and 9 years olds DID actually play so I lost the moral high ground there).
My Y5 DS is just copying his brother and goes on screens a lot too, but is doing very well at school so I can't claim he should have worked harder. But his behaviour is more affected by losing his game.
I have tried to just leave it and not nag, but they are utterly unable to self-restrict and just stay on screens for hours at a time. I am very uncomfortable with how much they are on screen, but I don't know if I am being old-fashioned (old gimmer - all we had was a TV and I was not allowed to watch during the day!) So I guess I am asking what do your children do all day in the summer? And how much screen time do you allow?

I have taken the kids' iPads and hidden them. I told the kids it was not a healthy way to live (on screens all the time) and that we would not be getting them out for several weeks. My eldest is 10 and doesn't use the device to communicate or do social media so it isn't an issue from that PoV. It's just game after game after game. Also unplugged the telly for a bit.

My two are close in age and play together well so they can entertain themselves for a bit. I have one screen exception from the ban which is learning touch typing. So having taken away all the other screens, my eldest has gravitated towards this and become a brilliant typist!

It is really difficult. We have two sets of close family friends with similarly aged children and both families allow all day iPad but feel the same way, they wish the kids would make better choices. It's difficult to know what. I'm stuck for where to take my kids/what to do. swimming, cinema, 1 week holiday, garden, am a bit stuck after that. Wish I knew good places to take them for days out.

We are not in the UK, and have 8 weeks holidays to fill. DH and I decided that there was no way we were getting into a screen marathon every day for 8 weeks. They get 1 hr iPad after lunch, and that's it. We told them this in advance of the holiday starting. They do about 45 minutes homework / revision most days, and if that goes well they might get 45 mins minecraft time on a laptop. Some telly morning and evening and that's it.

At the same time, DH and I have made a big effort to put our phones away and play games with them. Loads of games. Board games, card games, puzzles, jigsaws, dominos - you name it. Ds8 will often play, sometimes he reads. Ds5 loves playing games. Neither of them have complained about the screen limits because they always have something else to do TBH.

I don't limit screen time - mine are 9 and 6. They do go through phases though of being constantly glued to the ipad then it's not charged again for weeks. They would prefer to be playing out, sometimes if the weather is bad or they have to go to GP when I'm at work where there's nowhere to play out they'll be on the ipads. They have a wii at GP they enjoy playing on.

Mine would also go on all day if they were given free reign!

In the holidays I allow 2 hrs maximum a day if we are in. We do go out a lot and I have had to impose a screen ban sometimes as they become so dependent on it for entertainment and forget what else they can do.
I've explained to them why screen time needs to be limited and I've found articles about how it affects the concentration and brain development etc and read it to them.
They understand why so they accept it easily.