My 5 year old son is obsessed with electronics. He can work an iPad better than I can. Pop a video game into the Wii and he will figure out how to play it in 30 seconds. He has his own list of his favorite YouTube channels that he can pull up on our SmartTV and watch from the couch. I don’t even know how to find Netflix on my TV.
It’s everywhere… kids using smart phones at the park, playing on tablets at the dinner table, watching TV in their parents S-U-V. But how much is too much? It’s a question I struggle to answer.
At my house, the rule is iPad time is only allowed on the weekends. (starting Friday evening) Since Santa brought him Skylanders SwapForce, that is now included in the weekend-only play time. We do our best to limit TV time during the week, but I am far from perfect. Some weekends, my husband and I will let him amuse himself with electronics for hours, just so we can get some cleaning done. On the rare occasion we go out to eat, absolutely NO playing on our phones at the table. That really irks me, seeing a family out to dinner and all the kids are looking down at devices. (It’s easy for me to say that now, my kid is only 5 and doesn’t put up much of a fight… yet)
Hudson gets plenty of time outside after school, thanks to my amazing sitter, but is it enough? He’s already so into electronics, and I know it is only going to get worse. For now I am going to stick to my limits, but I wonder if I am fighting a losing battle. How much electronics time do you think young children should have, and does it even matter? I would LOVE to hear opinions on this one.
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