I have been blessed with four voracious readers. Their reading habits have earned them near notoriety in our small town. And when people ask how my children read so many books, I often answer, “I limit their screen time.”
Don’t get me wrong. My kids love their little devices and games, especially Minecraft. The battle to curtail screen time grows more arduous as devices get smaller and more portable. When child #1 briefly uses my iPhone to “check his clan”, children #3 and #4 whine, “Can’t we have electronic time too?”
Sigh. But I won’t give up. Because when I say, “No, it’s NOT electronic time,” my children groan and then go off to pick up a book. It is their default activity.
Last week, my friend Caroline shared an awesome article from The Huffington Post called, “8 Ways Screens Are Ruining Your Family’s Life.” With a somewhat smug smile, I read through the summarized research about why kids shouldn’t sit in front of screens: decreased attention span, limited creativity, etc. I knew all this. I was a good mama.
But then I got to the reasons why screens are bad for adults. And the smug smile disappeared.
Three points struck me. Hard.
- Kids hate it when we pay attention to our screens instead of them. They see it as hypocritical that we limit their screen time, but not ours. Ouch. We should be attentive to their needs, not checking Facebook updates. I know this, and yet I’ve been guilty of holding up my finger to a child and saying, “Just a minute,” to finish a comment. (Maybe I’m not such a good mom.)
- Our spouses hate it when we pay more attention to our screens, too. See #1. Same general idea.
- Checking email / Facebook/ Twitter isn’t relaxing. Staring at a lighted, electronic screen is stimulating, not calming. Researchers suggest that when we have a few (rare, precious) moments to rest in our day, we shouldn’t scroll through Pinterest. We should sit down, take a walk, or maybe, READ!
This article came to me shortly after I read my friend Amy’s post on how she gave up television for the month of August and had more time to read and write.
I feel like someone is trying to tell me something. Like, “Put down the phone!”
So, I’ve resolved to spend less time in front of screens and more time in conscious, meaningful interaction with my family and friends. I’m also hoping to get more valuable reading done. For example, while my son got a cavity filled this morning, I read the latest issue of Writers Digest and picked up a few great tips for the manuscript I’m editing.
Social media has a place, but I need to define that place and set aside a specific time in the day for commenting on blogs and posting to Facebook. When my hubby and kids aren’t home.
My husband, ever the Devil’s Advocate (sometimes just to spite me), made this point when I shared my concerns about adult screen time: “I read more now because of my phone than I did before.” And, he does. He used to watch more T.V. So he has traded one screen for another. If the content is better, is that change an improvement?
Where do you stand on screen time? How do you set boundaries to limit screen time for yourself and your family?
Thanks for helping me out!
Julia
