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I had had it! My kids were fighting and loud and crazy and I just couldn’t take it anymore! So I told them (in a louder, but not quite yelling voice) That’s it! No more screens! FOR. A. MONTH. There may have been some panic and tears from my kids, but I knew we needed to break this cycle of depending so much on screen time and then being crazy afterwards. We lasted three weeks of no screens for kids – we broke it because we got bunnies and found out my son was allergic. We felt bad that his face was all puffy and he had to just lay there so we let him watch a show. And if you let one kid have a screen, then you have to let all of them have a screen. But we’re definitely changing how we use screens going forward.
Pros of No Screens for Kids
- The first thing we noticed was that our kids slept better. The slept in a bit longer than they usually do. We aren’t sure if it was because of less blue lights or because there wasn’t much to do in the morning so they were willing to try going back to sleep when they woke up. Either way, we definitely saw a later wake up time of at least 30 minutes for all of our kids.
- Our kids played outside more. There weren’t any tempting screens to keep them in, so they played outside with the neighborhood kids. Our kids usually like to play outside anyway, but this encouraged even more outside playing.
- They played together more. If friends couldn’t play, they didn’t have much to do, but play with each other.
- Our kids who could read, read more. We went to the library and grabbed a few chapter books that looked interesting and they are soaking them up! Even our kids who can’t read yet enjoyed a stack of picture books to look at.
Cons of No Screens for Kids
- Having no screens didn’t solve all the behavior problems we hoped they would. Kids are still kids and are still going to fight and cry, but I do feel that overall the behavior was better. We especially noticed this when we gave them back the screens – it was a rough day for everyone!
- No alone time for mom. I don’t have any nappers anymore, but I do still have 2 kids at home. No screens means more time that I have to entertain the kids and it was hard to focus during the time I wanted to get work done because they didn’t have any distractions.
- There was lots of complaining about not having screens or that “it wasn’t fair” that mom and dad have screens. I even had kids try to steal my phone when I wasn’t looking.
What We Learned
We learned that less screen time overall is definitely better. There are some really great tips from this Health Matters article about limiting screen time. So going forward we’re implementing a few new rules in the Tanner house:
- Screens only allowed on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays
- Screen time will be limited to 1 hour of personal tablet use – we can still watch movies together as a family which we like to do on Friday nights or family Nintendo time. We love popcorn for Movie Nights. Here’s a tasty Vanilla Cake Batter Caramel Popcorn Recipe!
- Better quality screen time – limit the types of apps our kids use and shows they watch. Our kids have Amazon Fire Tablets and they have great parental controls.
- Continue to keep bedtime, mealtime, and family time screen-free.
Have you gone a time with no screen for kids? What did you think? Comment below or let me know on Instagram!