I remember when “screen time” meant sitting in front of the TV on Saturday mornings with a bowl of cereal and a cartoon marathon. These days, screens are everywhere,pockets, backpacks, wrists and the lines between learning and zoning out are blurrier than ever.
One afternoon, I found my daughter watching a video of someone else playing with toys plastic figurines, a tiny dollhouse, the whole deal. I asked her, “Don’t you want to go play with your own toys?” She looked at me, puzzled. “But this is fun too.” That moment hit me like a splash of cold water. Was she learning? Was she being entertained? Was she just…passively absorbing content?
That’s when I started to ask myself: how much is too much?
The Modern Dilemma As a mom, I understand the temptation. You’re cooking dinner, folding laundry, responding to work emails and giving them a screen buys you a moment of peace. No judgment here. I’ve done it, too. Many times.
But as I saw my kids spending more time swiping and less time imagining, more time tapping and less time talking, I began to worry. Not in the panicky, “throw all the devices away!” kind of way. But in the “something doesn’t feel right” kind of way.
The Real Risk Isn’t Just the Screen The problem isn’t the screen itself. There are incredible resources for kids online story apps, educational games, science experiments on YouTube. The real risk is when screens become a substitute for everything else: play, conversation, boredom, exploration, emotions.
Children need moments of boredom to spark creativity. They need face-to-face conversations to develop empathy. They need to look out the window and wonder, to get frustrated and learn how to sit with it, to play pretend and invent their own worlds, not just watch someone else’s.
When screens take over those moments, we’re not just entertaining them. We’re replacing key developmental experiences.
A Shift in Our Home I’m not a tech expert. I’m a mom, learning every day. And here’s what we’ve started doing:
Tech-Free Zones: No devices at the dinner table or in bedrooms. Those spaces are for connection and rest.
Time Limits with Purpose: We use screen time for something specific, like learning a dance, exploring a science video, or calling Grandma, not just scrolling.
Digital Detox Days: Sundays are mostly unplugged. We read, walk, bake, build forts, complain (yes), and reconnect.
It hasn’t been perfect. Some days they resist. Some days I do. But over time, something changed. The whining became less. The imagination came back. The conversations grew deeper. And the silence real, present, peaceful silence returned.
Screens Are Tools, Not Babysitters Technology isn’t going anywhere. And honestly, I don’t want it to. It’s part of the world our kids are growing up in. But maybe that’s the point if it’s going to be part of their world, then we have to teach them how to live with it, not get lost in it.
And that starts with us.
So, if you’ve ever handed over your phone just to get through a grocery line, or relied on a tablet so you could have five minutes of quiet, I see you. You’re not failing. You’re surviving.
But maybe, just maybe, it’s time to ask ourselves how we want screens to fit into our family’s story. Because our kids are watching. And what they see in us will shape what they seek for themselves.
Marie A. MacArthur.
No comments:
Post a Comment