What do you kids do after school?

[lenamama]

I'm kind of stuck in a horrible rut where the evenings my children have no activities they both end up glued to screens. My 6 year old is getting addicted to his games console and I need to draw a line as its all he ever talks about. My 8 year never has her phone out her hand! I try to suggest other things to do but they shrug them off and after a long day at work I admit I let them get on with it as I'm exhausted!

So my question is do you have a daily screen time limit? What activities do you do to fill your evenings?

Dts are 8. They don't have consoles or phones (I'm not draconian but they have showed no insterest in consoles and they are nit getting a phone until secondary, they have a chrome book each).

Sunday to Thursday no chrome book at all in term time.

Monday - gymnastics
Tuesday - art club
Wednesday - after school club
Thursday - brownies

By the time they've done that and homework / reading they can watch cbbc. No Disney channel or anything else it seriously impacts their behaviour.

I find it much easier to have a blanket rule instead of xyz minutes and they seem to find easier to deal with.

School holidays they can do what they want but a 45min you tube limit per day as ditto has a total impact on their behaviour.

What is the 8yo doing on a phone?

They do quite a few clubs et- things like rainbows, dance, swimming lessons, karate etc

Other days they have a friend round.

On rare "empty" evenings -they go on trampoline, play football, argue with each other, play with toys or watch some TV. I limit screen time usually, unless I am ill or they are.

Demand food, watch tv, play, read, have showers. Tablets sometimes. Home at 4, dinner at 5, showers between 6 and 7. In bed by 7.30. Older ones read until 8 but need their sleep so lights out at 8. In the summer we do more like go for ice cream, go to the park, play out.

Thanks for your reply.

The 8 yo watches youtube, chats with friends, plays Roblox.

That should have said 8 year old does that on phone!

Sorry new here and first post

My dc eat a snack then play Lego or play outside - scooters, football, cycling, park or walking the dog with me - weather dependent. Ds goes to street dance, dd does gymnastics. They both go to youth club one night per week. Homework and reading after tea. There isn't really time for screens.

Mine are 7 and 5.

I should add bicker and drive me nuts to their activities They are 12, 11, and 4.

Mine are older now but at 8 (so yr 3) they did:
Horse riding one night
Drama club one night
Ballet (Dd) one night
Football (Ds)
Judo (Both)
Otherwise it was park or libary.
Tried very hard not to come straight back from school as it does make a loooong evening.
From yr 4 they did 11+ prep as well.
Swimming on saturdays.

I have an 8 year old. I would never ever ever give him a phone. He has not a single friend in primary school who also has a phone.
DS comes home, he plays outside with his younger sibling, does music practice, plays a bit more, does some homework, plays board games, does Lego, eats an enormous quantity of snacks, reads books and plays outside again. In good weather he might go to the park and take his cycle with him. We may have the odd play date.
You need to go cold turkey. You need to ensure he has age appropriate books and toys. (DS likes Lego, marble runs, will make train tracks with his younger siblings and likes board games). And it’s fine for kids to be bored. They don’t need entertainment constantly.

Oh I had forgotten gymnastics.

Btw DS1 does music, cricket, swimming and choir. That’s more than enough. The weekends are packed with sport or music or outdoor stuff. And some homework. So no screens unless there is sport on TV.

We have dinner together then walk the dog for half a hour, DD1 (11) has netball Wednesday evening and guitar lessons Monday evening, DD2 (5) has Dance on a Wednesday evening also and choir on a Tuesday, DD1 has a phone/pad/Xbox and can be on them some days a lot, DD2 has a tablet but doesn’t use it much but rule is only till 6pm for DD2 and 8pm for DD1 and none of us are allowed them at the dinner table, as for weekends Saturdays can be a netball tournament or a dance comp or we do something as a family like swimming or a day trip somewhere together, Sunday’s are our lazy days so mostly spent in the house with Sunday dinner and the kids can do whatever activities they like most of the day DD1 sometimes goes out with friends for a few hours but around 6ish we all bath and watch a film together and have a early night

My two have 1.5-2 hours of tablet time (they're nearly 10 and 6). Recently it's crept up as I've been ill but they're both largely playing Minecraft and the eldest talks to friends so it could be worse. I have a rule that if they can't put down the tablets without there being a fuss, they get less time the next day.

Apart from that they're doing after school clubs a couple of days a week (ones they've chosen), playing with friends (in summer the eldest is out playing until he's hungry enough to come home), lego, reading, homework, craft projects. I do have to direct them to specific activities as otherwise they're silly buggers and drive me nuts.

Play, read, do homework. No TV until after dinner when they watch YouTube typically. The TV thing slipped pre-Christmas but I stood my ground last night. Fridays are a bit more flexible.

Neither have consoles or phones and I don’t expect to get them a phone until year 6 at least.

We get home at 4pm. She gets changed. I pop the Tele on for them whilst I cook. Then usually she colours and potter's around playing with her toys. She's only 4 & 3/4. Her swimming is on Saturdays.

No harm in Tele in the winter. But have they got things like Lego, drawing and crafts, books and whatever else they have you wise?

In the summer my daughter will be outside. She loves it outside.

Oh and pretend they are starving!

They had unlimited screens on fridays.

Ban electricals in the evenings/school nights, if necessary, remove them from sight. Bring them out for a set amount of time at weekends.

Force them to do anything but go on those devices. Give them things to do like art, cooking, playing with toys, Lego, junk modelling, bike rides, scooter rides, go to the park, play football, do puzzles, colouring in....

Go back in time and don't buy your 8 a phone-

Make sure you're setting the same expectations for you and DP. No staring at phones in the evenings for you either!

PS I should say that I don't believe all screen time is equal. If they're doing something more creative then I'm more lenient on time - DS1 is learning a programming language and I've decided not to think of that as counting towards his screen limit. I'm lucky though in that my two don't get obsessed with screens so I see no need for a hard ban during the week but if yours do, going cold turkey might be easier. Good luck!

My dc play outside for an hour or two depending on weather. But mostly they always do. Even if it rains they have some run around before we go home. Even when it’s freezing we are out. They are 6 and almost 8. They do watch tv sometimes. But usually on school nights they play board games w the au pair (I’ve got a newborn keeping me busy). So they play monopoly, cluedo, jenga, uno, checkers, other card games etc etc. We have loads. They also do oragami and Lego w the au pair or homework. Eat dinner, bath and then hang out w me in bed while I feed newborn and they either read or chat w me. Then my partner comes home puts ds to bed while I stay w newborn and my elder dd. Then I put her to bed.

I forgot - they also do tennis, gymnastics, football, rugby and netball.

Mine are 13 and 15.

15 year old has football training one day a week.

13 year old reads, chats to friends, paints and draws sometimes.

They do their homework, watch TV, and play their PlayStation.

They know the rules about trolling, grooming, chatting to strangers.

Probably too much screen time but as they have been at school I don't see it as a problem as long as they go to sleep when I say and get their home work done. They are well adjusted, polite boys. It's how they chill out.

Mine used ipad for cloud tables, they loved that.