Have you gone cold turkey with kids screen time usage?

[Seemstome]

I’m really concerned over my 8 year old’s addiction to screens and am considering doing zero screen time - has anyone else done this with success?

She has a screen time limit already, so she doesn’t have unlimited access, but recently her attention and listening has become dreadful, she’s rude and disrespectful, and she’s started to not want to do extra curricular clubs which she always used to love.

To top it off this morning she was that engrossed on the iPad that she ended up wetting herself a bit because she couldn’t be bothered to get to the toilet on time.

I don’t know how much of her behaviour is typical of a preteen, or how much is related to screens, but I’m at my wits end with the bloody thing. She also has a reading and maths app on the iPad that the school encourage them to use, so I don’t want her to miss out on that.

Yes have taken away for a day/ few days at a time, my sons were hooked and needed to be pushed outside or to do homework etc. she needs to colour, play, build stuff, ask her to make a card for a relative etc. they’re too young to reason with. Tell her when it comes back you can figure out timers etc

I'm pondering this too. Had screen time limit but my 8yr old worked out how to override it😐...
I am currently stopping ipad before school. I just feel like he barely plays anymore. He does also seem more irritable.

I’ve said she’s not having it for at least today and to be fair she didn’t protest too much. She’s now playing with toys in her room instead. Will see how long it lasts…

Few weeks cold turkey, then have the screen time later in the day not in the morning.

No, we simply put strict maximum screen hours in place (password-protected time-outs on the iPad) and we would not budge unless we had seen good offline behaviour.

Dd is now 15, tracking top grades in her GCSE’s and in her spare time she cares for her pets, bakes a lot, doing her silver DofE, is a junior instructor in her main sport (which she trains for 3 hours a week). She still has masses of screen time and definitely addicted but it has not totally ruined her life.

go cold turkey, then have set times that it is allowed, so all homework done before any screen time, including the maths/english which can be done last on the screen.

Set screen time limits, if they work out how to switch them off, take the screens away for a week.

No screens for an hour before bedtime so the brain can switch off. No screens while eating.

None in the morning at all, or only once 100% ready for school.

I think we are already pretty strict with it: it’s never allowed before school, after school she has to do any homework before she can go on it, then she comes off it at dinner time and for the rest of the evening. Weekends are a little more relaxed I guess, and over the holidays she definitely spent more time on it.

I’m more concerned that she is saying she doesn’t want to do her after school dance class this term, and can’t work out if it’s because she genuinely doesn’t want to or would rather be at home on the iPad!

To me, it sounds like you’ve got a really good grip on screen time already.

How many weeks has she been back at school/dance? It’s an adjustment after that long, relaxed summer vacation. I know my kids struggle with getting back into routine.

I would tend to drag dd along to her dance class until half term and if by then she’s still hating it you have your answer.

This week just gone was meant to be her first class back at dance school. I had all her kit ready and as soon as she came out of school she was already upset about the thought of going, and got in such a state I didn’t want to force her. Her friend has dropped out so I think that is impacting her decision too. Stuck between thinking it will save me £70 a month but also I know how good she is at it and how much she enjoys it when she’s there 😭