Do you constantly hear the cry for more screen time? Are your kids asking for more and more screen time? Our kids are always wanting more screen time.  What kid doesn’t want more screen time? In this quick episode I will give you my four step solution to stopping your kids from crying for more screen time.  It has definitely helped keep the screen time cry to a muffle in our house.  Listen in!

Show notes

[00:00:00] Hello friends. Welcome to a quick tip time-saver today. We will be talking about practical tips on how to stop the cry for more screen time to your kids. Cry for more screen time, mine do. Here are some practical tips that I have found have helped us keep arcades for. Crying too much. I should say for screen time, they still like to think that they can get away with it.

[00:00:28] But here are four practical steps to just guide you and help you take this on because every parent has this issue. Number one. So talk with your spouse about how much screen time is appropriate and what that looks like for your family, what it looks like, where they’ll be, what they’ll be on, what device?

[00:00:54] That kind of thing. We have talked about it. And Steven and I have [00:01:00] figured out that during the week, it’s just too much for our kids to be on screen time. They’re at school and they’re sometimes on a screen, but they’ve got homework to do when they come home, their brains need a break. They need to go outside and play.

[00:01:16] So we do not have any screen time during the week. And that’s just a thing we do. So number one is to talk with your spouse, figure out what boundaries are appropriate. What kind of things you both agree on that you’d like to stop? Number two, all screens should live and be used in public spaces.

[00:01:41] So this is also to prevent not only your kiddos from let’s say they’re doing homework. And then they switched to chatting with friends. We have one who likes to do that, or maybe they’re doing homework on their computer and they switched to playing Minecraft. Instead of doing the math, [00:02:00] a lesson that they’re supposed to do on.

[00:02:03] So it keeps them honest in front of you. Cause you can always just check their screen or we have also been able to see reflections of their screen against other objects in the house, like maybe a window or a door and noticed that they are not doing what they do. This also protects them from maybe going to pornographic sites or sites that are gory or just not meant for them.

[00:02:28] So one of the rules in our house, as well as I would hope in your house is to have all screens. In public spaces. So as I said, for us, it’s downstairs, we’re usually in the kitchen or the living room, or we will bring a child into the office and say, okay, daddy’s in the office working, you can sit next to him and work on your iPad or you can play games or whatever it is.

[00:02:52] So it’s always a public space that they’re using their screen screens. Don’t go upstairs. And at the end of the day, they [00:03:00] all go back into their charging. We have a box in our office where all the electronics live and whenever there done with that time, the electronics go back there, they get plugged in.

[00:03:13] We know where the electronics live at all times. We know if one is missing or if something’s happened to it. So that is a huge tip I would recommend is to. All your screens in one box in one place that’s plugged in that you can see. And they all live there. They do not live as this goes for cell phones too.

[00:03:35] we have one child with a flip phone, and, that lives in the kitchen to be charged. So. Those are kind of our boundaries as far as electronics. And we have found that that works really well because we know where they are. It doesn’t interfere with our kids sleep. They’re not trying to look at video games late at night or, or chat with friends or anything.

[00:03:59] [00:04:00] Number three, talk to your kids about the boundaries that you’ve created with your spouse. say, okay, we’re not going to do any screens during the week, unless it is for school. And on the weekends, our rule is that you can have. Three hours of screen time. Sometimes we break that up depending on what we’re doing in the weekend, but usually it’s like a Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon.

[00:04:27] You can have three hours of screen time.

[00:04:29] This works really well because. I give gives, Steven and I downtime that we know that we’re going to get because our children will all three beyond their devices at one time. So maybe that’s a time where we can meet together to go over things for the next week or connect with one another, or just take that time to read a book and rest.

[00:04:52] So we know that that big chunk of time will be usually sometime during the weekend, in the afternoon.[00:05:00] We’ve also established that when we go on vacation and when we go on trips, the iPads are much more accessible. So for example, When we are in the airport, after we go through security and we may be waiting at the gate, usually our kids can play on their iPads.

[00:05:19] if we have a nice long stretch, if we’re just going to be hopping on the plane in five minutes, oh, we usually keep it in their backpack, but they’re allowed to use their iPad. In the car, if we’re going on a long trip, unless it’s windy and your kids might get carsick. As I said, they’re allowed to do it before we get on the airplane.

[00:05:42] And then after we are on the airplane. And once we get to our destination, we draw the line with, okay, once we get off the airplane, that’s it for iPad time, because we’ve noticed it’s been difficult if they want to take it out while we’re at the baggage claim or they [00:06:00] want to take it out while we’re trying to do something else.

[00:06:02] If we are sitting in waiting to get a rental car, or we are stuck in one place for a long time, we are usually pretty lenient and we’ll let them know. Continue playing on their iPad. But, if we are moving somewhere quickly, it’s far more effort to get all that out and then put it all back in. So that is my tip for number three, of talking to your kids about the boundaries that you’ve kind of created.

[00:06:29] And when you. Number four is stick to your guns. So this is the most important. this step will help you with all the other steps. So step four is stick to your guns, and this is the most important step. If you don’t have this, it will not solidify the rest of the 300. So your first one is to talk with your spouse, figuring out your boundaries around screen time.

[00:06:58] What’s appropriate. [00:07:00] What is okay for your family? Number two, all screens should live and be used in public space. Number three, talk to your kids about the boundaries that you’ve created. If they’re older, you can connect with them a little bit more and tell them why you’ve established these boundaries, but really you want to just let them know this is what our family has decided.

[00:07:26] This is what is healthy. And number four, stick to your guns. Stay strong about the boundaries that you’ve created. Your kids already know what the boundaries and the rules are, and they will eventually stop crying for more screen time. If you stick to your boundaries, if you are strong, if you decide to waiver and constantly say, oh, that’s fine. [00:07:54] Okay. I’m just really tired. I’ll give you a screen. Then they’re going to know [00:08:00] that All they need to do is cry. So stick to your guns. Number four, and stick to those boundaries that your kids already know that you’ve established with your spouse. And it’ll be far easier. Oh, as always. I love hanging out with you.

[00:08:17] Come on over to our Facebook group, the busy, vibrant mom, Facebook, and it’s so much fun. We have a wonderful community of women in there who love to make new connections and talk about what tips are helping them in their motherhood. So come on over and you will find a really fun. It can be. If you’re having trouble implementing any of these steps or other steps, or you just need a hand to hold.

[00:08:47] Let me know. I would love to connect with you one-on-one and do some coaching. You can reach me through my website. Michelle.com [00:09:00] or you can reach me through the Facebook group, the busy, vibrant mom, Facebook, and I would love to connect and hang out. So come on over. All right. I hope you’re having an amazing busy, vibrant day.