For most of my life I was staunchly against screen time, especially for children. It was for special occasions, nothing more. If the television was on in the house, it was to listen to music. We all know there is a “but” coming…. then I had children, and saw how screen time helped my toddler.
It snuck in slowly – as I’m sure it does with most families… when others would watch my children they would turn on the television, and eventually my toddler started requesting tv.
You can read more about what changed over on the post Why I Changed My Mind About Screen Time, but that is how I started realizing the benefits of allowing my two toddlers to watch tv (within reason).
Screen Time Helped My Toddler
This is such an about face that I feel clarity is in order: screen time (in my opinion) should still be moderated and supervised. This is not me saying give the kids free reign to watch and do as they please.
However, the benefits of screen time I have seen with my toddlers have been very evident. Here are a few ways my toddlers have benefited from screen time:
- They have learned to sit and focus for longer spans of time (currently a few minutes or so, but this is an improvement)
- My two year old has started learning to count watching a kid’s number show (which is actually super cute and even draws me in sometimes)
- A bigger vocabulary is slowly developing (they keep surprising us)
- It helps them settle down and relax a little bit, which is great if they have been high energy all day (and gives me a chance to breathe a bit)
Regulation of Screen Time in the Future
I recently saw a post by another mama about how she got her teenagers off their phones. While many would argue that they simply wouldn’t provide phones in the first place, this particular mama had a different perspective.
She went on to explain that she taught her teenagers how to spend time away from their phones and other devices, how to handle the boredom and create their own fun. When they showed interest in something, she would find a way to make it happen (within reason), even though it took time, energy, effort, and probably sometimes money.
With my newfound perspective on screen time, this seems like a logical approach – instead of creating a forbidden fruit and making the child or teenager want it MORE and resent you for taking it, I hope to teach them to entertain themselves WITHOUT phones or other devices. That seems like the best way to function in a society that values electronics… because while screen time helped my toddler, I still don’t want either of them to spend all day glued to a screen.
Have you seen benefits from screen time with your kids? Do you put limits on them, or do they limit themselves? Let me know in the comments below!
Christian, wife, “hybrid” mama, I run the site All Behind A Smile to help others like me.
[…] Well, first take a peek at the article Screen Time Helped My Toddler. If you are short on time, the section I’m referring to is at the bottom, under the headline […]