Let’s say you received a flier for a new summer day camp in the mail that contained the following information:
“We take your kids and keep them inside all day long. We do not allow them to move around much. They will spend their day in front of screens, the TV screen, the computer screen, and the video game screen. We like to call it Screen Time. Instead of three meals a day, we feed them all day long with junk food to keep them from being hungry for meals. Our camp is only $250 a day, please send a check for the whole week.”
Would you send your kid to this camp? Of course not! What parent in their right mind would?
So why do we let our kids do this every day?
So why do we do it?
If you will indulge a 47-year-old guy just one little “When I was young rant,” here goes:
When I was a kid, they had to drag me inside for dinner or bedtime. Many people my age tell me the same thing.
Most of these things do not happen all at once, they just sort of creep up on you.
What to do
Screen time is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s when screen time is the only thing that it becomes a bad thing.
A strategy that has worked with my kids and in the families with whom I counsel and coach is this:
For every hour that a child spends in front of a screen, the child has to spend an hour outside having fun.
Simple, powerful, it works. Now go use this stuff!
For more tips and tools, you can visit www.ParentingYourTeenager.com .
Jeff Herring, MS, LMFT, is a marriage and family therapist.
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