Parenting skills

quaratineinthesejeans

Justiceforall
Skilled
Some here have kids, let's have a discussion on parenting skills/ tips and tricks.
Our major concern,
How to reduce screen time for a 5 year old? What's the max allowable limits? Since we are not very careful, and have multiple ipads, laptops, a family desktop ( always on) scattered all the house, the kid has access to all of them when we are not around.
Now we are little more careful and keep those things out of the kid's reach ( the babysitter actually did it for us)
We don't want to take away everything from him, as he still can't play with his friends ( the virus thing) and both of us need to go out for work everyday and the kid spends more than 8 hours with the babysitter ( who's a very nice young college student, but can't replace the grandparents)
 

nitin_g3

Well-Known Member
Disciple
I allow my 5 year old to watch cartoons on TV on YouTube for up-to 2 hours everyday, She also attends her online classes on ipad which is 2 hours in total.
Other than that, I don't let her use any devices. She has plenty of indoor toys which she plays with along with her cousins.
 

blackscorpio

Member
Disciple
There was one video going rounds on social media.. a phrase from the video says .. "They are watching..."

I don't think that is the most important lesson to any parent. "They are watching...."

Its like time has turned around, couple of decades back, parent needed to keep an eye on the kids & watch them. Now, kids are ALWAYS watching parents. So, always be aware what you CAN/CANNOT do when kids are around. They will do whatever you DO.

You READ they READ
You use PHONE they PHONE
You watch TV they watch TV, & so on..

So, my .02 cents is : if you want them to BEHAVE first you BEHAVE & they follow. No need to stress out.

We cut the cable 5 years back, we ourselves don't watch TV more than couple of hours(definitely less than an hour most days), except Sat/Sun. Sat/Sun it would be couple of movies. This is the ONLY one thing we accomplished, still so many things that need to changed.

We are still not able to CUT our phone/laptop usage. My wife reads & spends most of the time with kids. Her digital intake is through mobile & bluetooth headphones when working in the kitchen so it won't distract others/kids.

We are still learning & struggling to keep up. There are so many things still need to be learned/changed, I meant WE not the kids.
 

kalph09

Active Member
Disciple
My 2-year-old twins would often get hooked to a mobile device screen. This was a concern when screen time increased during the lockdown. The only way to cut down was to keep ourselves away from the tech and keep them occupied with anything that does not involve staring at TV/Mobile. It has worked really well so far. Screen time has drastically reduced to 10-15 mins a day.