Screen time is saving our sanity

amother

Fri, Apr 03 2020, 12:16 pm

My husband is still working and I have been sick. My children are definitely having too much screen time. But you know what. Everyone is happy and calm. No we don’t have that picture perfect colored scheduled day. My kids wake up late and sometimes don’t eat breakfast til almost lunch time. They do spend time doing other activities and talking to their friends. Not sure how Pesach will happen. But after reading some of the threads here, I’m really feeling grateful for this lifesaver. There’s minimal stress going on here which is the last thing I’d need right now!

zaq

Fri, Apr 03 2020, 12:21 pm

Relax. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Your children’s mental, physical, and spiritual well-being will not be permanently blighted by a few weeks of more than optimal screen time.

amother

Fri, Apr 03 2020, 12:24 pm

zaq wrote:

Relax. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Your children’s mental, physical, and spiritual well-being will not be permanently blighted by a few weeks of more than optimal screen time.

Thanks! That’s what I’m thinking. I have this guilt seeing others plan their kids’ day from morning til evening, but I’m realizing that if this is what’s working for us then what am I feeling so guilty about? BH our house is truly calm. No one is losing it. Can’t imagine living in a house full of stress and yelling.

HonesttoGod

Fri, Apr 03 2020, 12:32 pm

Someone told me “Weaning them off will be so hard afterwards”.
I replied “mourning their death from the psych ward would be harder”.

Literally.

amother

Fri, Apr 03 2020, 12:35 pm

HonesttoGod wrote:

Someone told me “Weaning them off will be so hard afterwards”.
I replied “mourning their death from the psych ward would be harder”.

Literally.

Honestly I do not think weaning them off will be so hard. Iyh when I regain my strength and things go back to normal, that’s when we’ll be able to be more on top of their schedules. And they’ll be in school all day, so obviously they’ll be naturally weaned.

amother

Powderblue

Fri, Apr 03 2020, 1:44 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Just want to prepare that it probably will be pretty difficult to wean them off, although it's still worth the tradeoff, I think. I let go of all screen time limits for a period of over 6 months when I had debilitating PPD, and obviously that was with having the older kids in school most of the day, and yes, weaning them off was incredibly difficult. But I have no regrets. I did what I had to do, and we survived with no lasting effects. So I'm reminding myself now, when I've also gone back to the unlimited screen time, that I've done this before and we survived.

amother

Firebrick

Fri, Apr 03 2020, 1:48 pm

Op, it's the same story here. I was on top of my kids' schedules until DH and I both got sick and now it's way too much screen time for the kids but hey, it's calm and relaxed here and as soon as we both feel better, iyH, we'll hide the DVD player under a couch cushion or something Wink

twizzlers1

Sat, Apr 04 2020, 1:32 pm

We hardly watched before but boy have things changed. I am not proud of it but my 5-year-old watches way too much, He is seriously addicted to Peppa pig. I never even heard of it until now. He definitely has ADHD and we tried one medicine and it's not working and I'm waiting for another prescription. Without this I would never have survived!! Bedtime also went out the window and we've been going to bed crazy late and sleeping late. But everyone is happy to pitch in when they wake up. I hope that this will pass and will be moving on to regular life much sooner than later.

amother

Denim

Sat, Apr 04 2020, 9:29 pm

I had my ds last year for sukkos he had way too much screen time. Back to cheder it took him a month to get back to learning. As of then no screen time for us. It could be it's his intense personality though... Bh they are not bored as of now. Hope this magaife Finishes soon though. also we have bh bh minimal stress.

cinnamon

Sat, Apr 04 2020, 11:46 pm

Here to.
I'm still working full time b"h and dh is working just a little less then that so the kids are watching a lot and playing video games a lot.
They do other things to (some learning, some coloring some playing with games) but A LOT of screen time.

My thinking is, Hashem gave us a challenge and he gave us some help to get through it.

ladYdI

Sun, Apr 05 2020, 8:39 am

Same here but try to make it a reward or part if the schedule
Like after you daven do one page of schoolwork and eat lunch you can watch for one hour. Same thing later. After you do one chore and eat dinner and shower one hour of watching.
I think once they get back to routine we can go back to the rule of no watching one school nights!