Fucking SCREENS - I wish I'd never let them in the house in the first place.

[BeMorePanda]

2 DD's 9 & 6. I'm a single parent.

Both like a little screen time - don't we all. Usually they will pay games, or watch kiddies you tube/iplayer or netflix - so in part it is a TV substitute. Not every day, but most days.

But the source of pretty much all conflict between us comes from screens and I'M OVER IT!!!

I feel like 9yo's preferred default position is on an ipad. When I limit/manage how much time she is on a screen, it leads to conflict - pretty much our only source of conflict.

So we got in last night and she went straight to the ipad. I said, no, please go and do something else. Lead to her having a tantrum. I didn't respond as such but when she had calmed down I tried to talk with her to work out a position we were both going to be happy with. She wasn't up for this and went back to tantrum.

I started to simply ignore all her theatrics. Ended up with me reading to 5yo in bed and ignoring ongoing antics of 9yo, until 9yo SPAT IN MY FACE

I managed to stay pretty calm, and told her to go to bed and we would talk tomorrow (today). She started all the "you don't love me" and I replied "I do love you but I don't like you very much at the moment and I do not want to talk to you right now. We will talk tomorrow"

She is very sorry and full of self loathing today. I've been very calm and netural.

She's now on an ipad ban (she has hidden ipad but I have the chargers). Also I'm not making her packed lunches anymore - I'm not taking the time and care to pack a nice lunch for someone who feels they can spit in my face.

But how to move forward with the screen time I don't know. I want to ban it all, and feel this would remove a massive source of conflict, but probably this is being unreasonable.

I wanted to talk with her and work out a system that works for us both, but I don't know if that will actually be possible or work.

I feel a bit lost.

How you you manage screen time with your kids?
How would you respond to a child spitting in your face?

MumBod that gave me a good chuckle!!

Sorry - I was meaning more in the way that I relate to that feeling, and the high drama of the moment! I'd love (at times) to do that too.

Expensive though :)

For me the "best" thing about the other night was I managed to "be cool" throughout lots of intense provoking and button pushing on the part of DD.

Mine are grown up now but even we had screen battles. They were born in the 90s so never saw parents on phones or tablets. They got hand held Nintendos around 8/9 years old and later on a PS. They each had a little digital timer and we allowed a certain amount each day. There were also screen free days. The PS was in the living room so had to be vacated when I wanted the TV.
I'd like to say it was all worth the effort but it wasn't. They resented and hated the restrictions until I stopped them when they were teenagers. They then demonstrated they could work hard at school while still gaming for fun.

Well done on staying cool though.