After trying long to regulate screen time for my son, all in vain, I finally found a solution that seems to have started on a positive note.
The Woes of children watching TV have been surpassed by the woes of children glued to their tablets. The problem only compounded with Covid and online classes. Now, every child has a device. I wrote earlier about Attention Span, and that has been reducing at a rapid rate. Go to any public place. You’ll find children deep inside a device. That is the best way to keep them from running around! 🤷
At a point of exasperation, not for the first time, I formulated an agreement, which was discussed with the family and refined. This coincidently happened around the 14th of April, the Tamil New Year. I’m glad that the New Year has brought in a new beginning. I only hope that it sustains.
The agreement
Screen time has to be earned!
For every cycle that my son completes, he earns an hour of screen time.
A cycle consists of a finite set of study/work activities – about 5 or 6. For example, writing a page to improve handwriting or doing a page from the science workbook could be activities of the cycle.
Each activity is about 10 minutes of work if the child knows it all. Initially, as the learning happens, it could be a little longer. The idea is to strive for a 10-minute finish without compromising on quality. At best, the activities could take about an hour. At worst, it can go to a few hours.
Doing the activity is not sufficient to mark it as completed. Getting it corrected and rewriting it if necessary, to the satisfaction of the marker( me or another adult in the family) is required for approval.
We track these in a log book. The marker signs off with the date and time.
The results so far
So far, it has been good. Not all activities are easy. Some of them take multiple iterations which occasionally frustrates him. But largely, he has taken to it well. It seems to be a game for him. The fact that earned screen time can be exercised without any nagging in the background excites him. Last week, over the Eid holidays, he saved up 3 hours and exercised it on Saturday by watching Karate Kid. This week, his friend has invited him to a new release movie and he is saving up screen time.
For our part, we’re glad that the Frustrated Gamer is not always screaming in the background. It gives us great pleasure to watch my son think about the activities to finish when he finds the time. We are amused to see him delay gratification. The oft-repeated ‘no’s have reduced as everyone has clarity on the options available with respect to available time. Bargaining has reduced a lot.
Some clarifications
- As of now, screen time at home is limited only to TV time. In future, it may be reviewed to include tablet time. For now, tablet time is only for studies.
- Apart from cycle time and screen time, he gets about 1.5 – 2 hours of park time every evening for outdoor playing.
- He may read as many books as he wants in any spare time. He may play with his toys or do something else if he doesn’t want to work.
- An hour of advance screen time needs to be compensated with 2 cycles.
- The agreement will be revisited every 3 months to redefine the cycle’s activities.
- It does take considerable effort and time from the family to correct his work.
If you have some system in place to regulate screen time for your child, please share it.
(Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash)
