Lockdown and Computer Games

[Justonemoreepisode]

2 DCs, DS is 14 and DD 8. Through this year screen time has up’d dramatically. Mix of having to work whilst they are at home (through lockdown and then out of hours provision being closed) but also not being able to go out and socialise as we would normally do. Younger one is not as bad as teen but teen seems to have no interests except this.
I am really worried about how much time they spend online/playing games. How do you encourage them to do other things? And what do your teens do instead? We have put limits on it but without being able to go out with friends he struggles.

We are in the same situation. DS14 says that there’s nothing else to do, and he’s kinda right. We’ve tried to encourage a bit of exercise each day by withholding the controller until he’s done it, and we’ve had a few family movie nights.

We encourage him to read, draw and all go for a daily walk but only takes up so long. With the kids being different ages it also difficult to find activities they both enjoy.