Our family has been through a lot in the past few years, and one thing I’ve noticed creeping up in our home is the amount of time spent looking at screens. Just today I realized our DVD player is on its last legs, and I think that might be a blessing in disguise… but do I really want to eliminate screen time altogether, or just be more mindful about it?
One blessing of having kids all close in age is we make our own fun!
One obstacle to having zero screen time is I wouldn’t be able to model it for my kids, as I run my business almost exclusively online! And while my kids know I do this, and I do model boundaries for them, I don’t know that it’s fair I tell them one thing & do another.
Another reason is, quite frankly, I need the break. I enjoy letting them watch a movie or learn on the iPad because it gives me a mental break & I can step into doing other things usually. I like some screen time & kinda feel it’s necessary for my sanity.
Additionally our family is quite different from the original shape we thought we were going to have, and with the unique challenges of caring for foster children (which can include emotional & physical disabilities, plus trauma, etc) I’ve also learned one of my greatest assets as a good mom is being flexible! So just because we do less or more screen time doesn’t mean it’s a forever plan- we can change direction as needed.
Our adventures through homeschooling and spending over 1,000 hours outside has ensured plenty of non-screen time!
The last reason I don’t think I need to be super concerned is because if you know our family at all, like our celebration post last week, you know we spend a lot of time without screens & we are definitely capable of boundaries & balancing the time spent indoors & on screens with other things!
I did want to share one cool thing we are doing for Christmas to help our kids get engaged in more books, without more screen time (though we do love Vooks) and that is the Yoto Mini audio player! We are giving them the player, plus the complete Beatrix Potter books on Yoto cards and some classical music cards. We can listen to books outside while they are playing, or even record us reading to them for repeat listening. I can’t always read 20-30 books a day (though I really wish I could) so this will help stand in that gap… and because it’s screen free, I can feel good about letting them access it freely! (Plus I’ve heard from other moms it’s only increased their kids love of reading, so I hope we see that too… though I definitely still plan to read to my kids a lot!)
It reminds me a lot of the audio player & recorder we got as kids for Christmas one year… and I hope my kids have just as much fun as we did with a low tech toy!
What Christmas gift did you get as a kid you think kids today would still love?
~Naomi
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