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Managing Screen Time during the Pandemic

You are not alone if you have been worrying about your child’s screen time and are now suddenly faced with a pervasive attachment to the screen, thanks to the pandemic. The screen has become necessary for your child’s education, social life and entertainment. So how do you restrict what is essentially a part and parcel of growing up for your children?

 

If you are worrying if your child is really paying attention during their classes and not doing something else on another tab or window, you are not worrying unnecessarily. There is cause for concern as we delve into another semester of continuing online education.

 

So, let’s take a look at how to manage screen time for our children when almost everything in their lives is taking place digitally. Their school, friends, games, even physical activities seem connected to the screen. In order that our children thrive and make the most of their educative years, it might be imperative that we change the way we think and talk about screen time in our homes.

 

The first change you need to establish is calling their activities what they are instead of grouping everything under ‘screen time’:

Refer to their daily activities by a decided term like “play time”, “friends time”, “family time”, “work” or “downtime”. This will keep communication between you and your children more honest and specific. This will also make it clear to your child what they are doing, what they should be doing and what they want to do.

 

Now that you have segregated “screen time” into activities that make up your child’s day, it is important to find the balances that create a healthy life with elements of play, exercise, relaxation, responsibilities and social interactions.

 

Create a learning agreement to keep your children accountable:

This is a document you create with your child that establishes school-year guidelines that are mutually agreed upon with incentives and consequences, as the case maybe.

 

Discuss with your children about the tasks they need to complete (studying / homework) and what they want to do (meet with friends online). Record these goals on the learning agreement and help your child to allot tome for each thing.

 

You could help them in setting up a routine or timetable by asking what time they need to start working on their homework, if they want to meet up with friends at 7:30 p.m., for example.

 

Set up and discuss parental controls:

If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we can’t always be monitoring our children. So set up parental controls and discuss those with your children. This is to help them ensure that their game or social interaction time doesn’t take up time from their studies. So, tell them that you need to use parental controls to help them manage their time better. Also tell them what they can do to demonstrate that they don’t need them.

 

 

Set up times and zones that are device free:

To ensure your children are resting adequately, setting up times and zones that are device free. This will also stop devices from spilling over into all aspects of your family life. Some spots like the dinner table and the children’s bedroom off limits to tech. This gives everyone a needed break and helps us realize what all devices help us with and what they take from us if we are not careful.

 

Plan for check-ins and device spot checks:

In order to ensure your children’s emotional well-being, you need to make sure that they are navigating their relationships well. This is especially tough in the tween years but more so when the communication is happening mostly through texts and video chats. Speak to them and discuss their social lives, find out the tools they are using, the environments in which they are interacting. Help them navigate tough situations and think through what they might say or do. Show them that you are open to listening to them so that they feel comfortable sharing any challenges they are facing.

 

Make sure they get some physical activity — away from screens: 

Ensure you’re achieving a balance of online and offline activities even if it is not daily. You can make physical activities a part of your family time or let your child exercise by themselves. You can try Simon says, friendly races, silly walks, or calisthenics.

 

Overall, make sure you are thinking of screen time in terms of the actual activities and help your child maintain a balance so that they can grow up to be well rounded, empathetic and responsible adults.