Positive Parenting Tips – How to respond when your child asks for more screen time?

Welcome to the brand new episode of the ASK A FRIEND series. This episode discusses another familiar problem parents face every other day. It’s about how to put forward good boundaries about screen time and stick to them without any tears or fights. We discuss some tips on responding positively when your child asks for more screen time.

Here comes the test for the boundaries that you have established earlier and kids are just trying to test those boundaries.

Simplified Parenting Podcast Show

Tune into the podcast episode (either in Telugu or English) on the embedded player here now, or listen to it on any of your favorite podcast platforms. If reading is your forte, scroll down for the show’s transcript.

Podcast in English

You can listen to the English Podcast episode on your favorite podcast platforms or hear it from here.

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Podcast in Telugu

Here is my podcast episode in Telugu about how to respond when kids ask for more screen time.

If you like listening to my Telugu podcast, I request you to subscribe to the Parents tho okka chinna mata podcast show on your favorite platform. Ratings and subscriptions allow the show to be discovered by more listeners.

The transcript for the episode “Mommy – Can I watch TV/IPAD for some more time, please?”

Hello Friends, welcome back to the ASK A FRIEND SERIES in the Simplified Parenting and Emotionally Healthy Child Podcast show. I am your host Suhasini from Mommyshravmusings.

In today’s episode, let’s discuss another dimension of last week’s topic. When we try to recommend other means of entertainment to our children, some kids will ask, can I watch TV for just 10 minutes plzz mommy/daddy!!, with such sweet puppy faces. You won’t get the heart to reject, even when they have crossed their scheduled gadget-watching time. In that case, what should you do as a parent?

We constantly push back, saying that since your gadget-watching time is up, you can read a book or play something, and no more gadgets for today.

But elder kids will come back and tell us, since you are working on your office work or using your mobile right now, why can’t we join you in watching? We will not disturb you. That is their way of getting the extra gadget time. They would also tell, can we watch some educational videos or documentaries. Now tell me, my dear friends, how can you let go of that opportunity to impart knowledge to you? The kids interested in art and crafts will say, we will want to use the extra time to learn about a new skill or art.

Here comes the test for the boundaries you have established earlier, and kids are just trying to test those boundaries and want to know whether you will bend those rules in any possible way.

That’s where the visual reminders help for kids. Let the kids work on the earlier agreed-upon screen schedule poster and put it in their favorite corner. As soon as the child finishes his scheduled time on gadgets, we need to mark it done on the calendar.

And to encourage alternative screen time activities, you can have a busy bag/ or a choice jar placed next to the gadgets. And remind them to pick one of the activities from the active bag or choice jar based on their wish.

The critical point to remember here is that the activities in these busy bags or choice jars should be rotated once every week so that the child will not get bored out of it.

Now you might ask me, what is a busy bag? Do you remember we used to carry these coloring books, puzzles, riddle books, sudoku, or word games books during the long journeys to keep our children occupied? It’s a similar concept, but instead of the sensorial materials or basic coloring books, we can add the fun general knowledge books, with question and answers and some easy-to-do craft activities, some puzzles, and board games, which are age appropriate. We can also include storybooks in this bundle.

Lastly, we should also model healthy screen behavior and limit our screens in front of them for the most critical activities alone and not for browsing social media, playing games, or watching OTT.

Though it might look a little daunting task initially, if you can follow this for the first month or a little more, your child will get habituated to following the healthy screen limits.

 I hope you liked today’s topic. Please do share your comments. If you like these episodes, don’t forget to share them with your friends, subscribe to this podcast show and rate it if possible.

You can check my other previous podcasts here.