To my dismay, it seems the things we have so carefully tried to limit for our oldest daughter...have become her obsession. We limit candy, and it fills her every waking thought if she finds it in the house. We try to limit screen time (movies, computer games, etc.) and she spends ALL DAY asking for more! (If you're silently judging me because my daughter watches movies, can spend an hour scrolling through our family pictures, and plays Starfall, Friend, and our spanish language program...that's fine. Just please don't tell me!)
We came up with a system the other day that hopefully will work well for her- I made a "token box" on the side of the refrigerator and moved three magnets inside. Each magnet is worth 30 minutes of screen time- she can move them out and I start the timer. So far this has really cut down on whining and tantrums! Of course, this afternoon she went and moved all her tokens back in, to try and get more screen time... but I'm hoping this will help her see concretely how much time she has available, and help her to choose what to do (play a game, watch a long movie, watch 3 short movies, etc.) It also helps that I can say "No, you're out of tokens for today, but tomorrow we'll fill the box again!"
I hope to make some marble magnets just for this box, but haven't come up with a design yet, but it's nice to have something she can physically touch and feel that she can control.
What do you do about screen time in your house?
4 comments:
I Just Say No.
Heh.
And wear earplugs.
Awesome! Sounds like an excellent idea for her to gain more control over herself in a way she can understand. It's off you now too! How clever.
I had to laugh about your comment about not expressing secret judgment. Ha, ha, I feel the same way - just don't tell me. LOL
I stop after an hour but if she really is wanting more time I'll turn on Pandora internet radio and we'll listen to music for awhile with the computer monitor turned off but the speakers on
Great idea- and it sounds like it is working-
I'm not one to give advice on this matter- I probably spend too much time on the computer myself. =)
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