Screen time rules in your house....

[despondentatwork]

I feel like we've lost control of our kids' screentime over the last few months & I'd like us to set some new rules. We have 2 teens & a 6yo & an 8yo. 6yo by is very screen obsessed. He is ??ADHD (awaiting assessment). I One teen is very good at managing screen time & balancing interaction with the rest of us. The other could spend all day every day in her room ATM on TikTok etc, and is reluctant to join us for ANY interaction. I think we've allowed her long enough to learn to manage her screentime alone. Now we need to step in. I do feel that lack of school & reliance upon devices for education is confounding the problem and it's been an uphill struggle. How do you do it?

Never let kids manage their screen time. Of course they won’t be able to and be on all the time. We limit screen time to two hours and some days no screen time. It’s not easy of course as when they are on screen it’s quiet and clean. When they are off screen, out comes all the toys, noise, arts and crafts etc. And more work to get them to tidy up. And then we also make sure to take them outside for walks/exercise. I have a 1, 7 and 8 year old. Obviously the baby doesn’t get screen time.

I use an app called Qustodio, it lets me decided between which hours I want them to use it and also how long.

We only allow screen time after lunch (on the weekends/holidays). It’s a hard rule and they don’t question it. It means that after breakfast we tend to play/ arts stuff or just muck about then go out to the park (or in normal times the usual range of places), come home about 12.30, lunch around 1, clear up and they have their tablets 2-4pm. They’re tending to watch stuff on Netflix or CBeebies rather than play games.

You may need different rules for the teens and the younger ones?