What are your top tips for maintaining a healthy balance when it comes to technology use in your family? Share with BT

[EllieMumsnet]

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With technology making up a big part of many peoples’ lives, including childrens’, there is a lot of conversation around how to ensure technology doesn’t completely take over family life. Technology can be a great source of education, entertainment, downtime and for some an essential part of work. BT and Internet Matters have teamed up to create their own list of tips for making sure your family has a healthy balance with technology, please click here to read them, but they would also really love to know your top tips.

Here’s what Bruce Cuthbert, Director of BT Devices has to say: “There are so many benefits for our children online, and an equal number of distractions. With kids back in school and autumn upon us, we’re spending more time indoors and the temptation is for kids to spend more time online. With Whole Home Wi-Fi, parents can pause the wi-fi and schedule wi-fi access device by device, to help children focus during study time and make bedtimes that bit easier, finding the right balance of online and offline time for the whole family. To find out more about Whole Home Wi-Fi, please click here.”

Do you have a time when you’ve agreed that you and your family will be off your devices, such as by dinner time? Perhaps you ensure that you have family days out and don’t take any technology with you? Maybe you go old-school and play board games on an evening with the family instead of watching tv? What if you were able to group your kids devices and then pause their wi-fi access at certain times; would this be useful to you?

Whatever your top tips are for maintaining a healthy balance when it comes to technology use in your family, post them on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

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At the moment I am on my computer. DH is watching netflix, DD is on her iPad. Maybe don't ask us!

Try and get out of the house with them as possible. The more time we spend at the beach/ park/ woods the less time they get to spend on their tech 🙈

I do find this one really tricky as I am a bit of a tech dinosaur and yet modern life is so full of it - kids homework is set on it now, so they have to access it at home. I do try and limit their game time, they aren't allowed them in their rooms and are not allowed to bring them to the dinner table. If only I had the same control over my DH - who even if he doesn't bring his phone to the table is looking at his watch that comes to life when messages come through...

My son is only a toddler but it can be very easy to sit him in front of the tv to get housework done. So I try and go out every day as well as having planned activities.

No phones at the table during meal times - where we actually sit and talk. We also have movie night once a week, usually a Saturday, when we all sit as a family and watch a film together.

We also spend most of the weekend, during the day, out together either at activities or walking the dog/meeting up with friends/a meal out. We don't plan it purposely to stay away from technology, it's just the way we are. During the week DD and DS have activities and so in between those and homework, I don't have a problem with them using phones, tablets or playing on the xbox. Everything in moderation!

I restrict it as much as I can whilst knowing that tech can play a healthy part of a child's life. I take my daughter to the library, park, garden, play dates and do activities at home. On the other hand, I also let her watch tv which will educate her and allow her to gain something positive from watching it. Its a balancing act.

The amount of time they do homework / reading earns them time on devices.

When our dc were primary age and younger we had a fairly strict "max 1 hour of screen time a day" - including tv, computers, devices.
Then in early secondary we set time limits on their devices - off at 9pm til 8am.
Now they are all mid teens we don't do any of that but I would again if any of them had trouble getting up for school in the morning. As it is they all bounce out of bed before I do so I guess they're not on their devices all night.
We still have a strict No phones at the table rule, and we eat dinner together every day. I would refuse to cook for or eat with people on phones - adults or children - so that rule will last indefinitely.

During the week we have no screens in am, and occasionally do no tv at all for full weeks on weekdays. Weekends we give dc screens in the morning and often watch something together. It's tricky because we use technology constantly to manage work life balance (work phones for email to allow me to work from home and leave early for school pick up) so need to make a point of putting them down when asking the dc to find an alternative to devices! Luckily they love arts and crafts so spend plenty of time happily doing this.

We have a strict no ipads during the week and dinner at the table with no tv on! (there's no telly in the kitchen anyway) Neither of our children are allowed on our mobiles!

So we never have phones at the dinner table so that we're not distracted as parents but also to show how important we are to one another - that you get undivided attention.
We also have the TV off at dinner, although always the radio on for background noise and music.
Screen time overall is monitored. Sometimes Dd will beg but we let her know that playing with toys is important to.

My kids don't have their own devices until teenage years so it's easy for us to keep control of screen time. It's not a regular daily thing here and that works for us - have it as an added extra on some days rather than the expectation being that you get screen time every day. We make more of an event of it with family gaming time or sitting together to watch a favourite programme.

When they were little all devices like laptop and games consoles were in the main living room so everyone's needs had to be taken into account therefore time on devices was restricted by circumstance and everyone just had to learn that was how it was! It worked.

Neither of my children got a phone until they were about to start high school and had no access to their phones during the week after 10pm. Right the way through school (for the eldest), DD still hands in phone as she is still in high school.

When they were older and had computers and consoles in their rooms again everything went off at 10pm. However, during the holidays and at weekends we left them to self regulate with the proviso we had family meals together and if something was planned as a family they attended (with minimum grumbling).

DC are 20 and 14 respectively now and although they love their phones, their Xbox, their computer gaming, social media etc. etc. They have a healthy balance. Lots of other outside interests may help with this too.

We have a no screen rule when we eat together. Also no phone use when watching a film together. At the weekends we usually play a board game together, no screens then too.

Screens downstairs only, not in bedrooms. I limit my 4yo's tablet use to after school and before dinner and tend to play games with him on it or ask him to find a video about something in particular so he can tell me about it (works well with animals and dinosaurs!). My DH is addicted to his phone especially in the evenings, so I tend to switch the WIFI off to get his attention lol!

This topic is really close to my heart. I have a 2 1/2 year old little boy and and 7 month old identical twin girls. When I had my little boy I went back to work full time so our family time was extremely precious and some week days I’d only have an hours play time with him. So we never watched tv or used technology during the week and at the weekend it was limited to a morning quick show before we went out for the day.

Now things are very different and when nursing my babies I quickly realised that my little boy would need to occupy himself much more often for up to 30-45 minutes at a time (it’s impossible to tandem feed whilst playing on the floor ). He loves watching tv and will ask throughout the day to see his favourite characters and it is very difficult to say no when you can’t get on the floor and engage with your little one! I soon felt like tv was taking over and he’d be watching it for hours when I added it all up.

So I created a fun box! Essentially this is an old shoe box wrapped in paw patrol wrapping paper! He has a couple of healthy and interesting snacks in it and I rotate some books and toys and occasionally pop in some new things for him to explore. So at feeding time my little boy sees this as a fun time and he often sits with me and looks at them on the sofa or reads with me. This has definitely helped create a balance for our family.

no screens after dinner in the evening (or before breakfast)

My dc are 23, 21 and 12 and I don’t really limit screen time. Their free time is theirs to do as they choose. The older two seem to manage their time appropriately and by the time Ds3 has done a full day at school, finishing at 5:15 two days, gets home does cello and piano practice, homework, showers and eats, not to mention swimming, music lessons and youth club he doesn’t have much time to spend on screens. We always swim on a Sunday morning but as long as everything else is done the time is his to fill.

No phones at the table and prioritise active and craft activities over screen time. I don’t mind a bit of tv for down time but we don’t have iPads or games consoles. Husband and I aren’t interested in that sort of thing so hopefully that will influence the kids as they grow up.