Comments on: How much time?

By: PrimevilKneivel

PrimevilKneivel — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:56:31 +0000

We use a weekly quota for all screen time; that way there is less sense of entitlement to daily access. As long as there is no outstanding homework or other responsibilities they can use it as they see fit. I’m hoping it gives them some practice at budgeting their time, sometimes it seems to work but we do have the occasional “but I didn’t know I wanted to watch this show!”.

We also use timers to keep track of the time. I have trouble keeping track of time when engrossed in a game, I think it’s unfair for me expect them to. (the Xbox family control timer is excellent for this)

A coworker does the same but with a twist, he has a collection of little plastic bears. Each bear is worth a given amount of screen time. His son gets his bears at the beginning of the week and trades them in like tokens for play time (or has them taken away if punishment is required). His son is younger than my kids so I think this works well for him. I was struck at how useful it can be to make a concept like time into a tangible object that his boy can easily grasp.

By: Dr. Matt Carlson

Dr. Matt Carlson — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:27:18 +0000

My boys are still young, but one hard and fast rule I know I’ll have (do have) is no computers in a kid’s room… only in public/family places… helps with all kinds of issues, especially time used, etc…

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:54:53 +0000

I have an 8yr old son and almost 3yr old daughter. Dylan gets on average 1-2hrs of gaming a day on either his DS or computer. On weekends he can play Wii as well. We use game time as a bribe/reward for good behavior.

We also allow for “special circumstances.” For instance, if we have to go to the doctor, he can play his DS in the waiting room and stuff like that.

As for TV time, we don’t really limit that time wise, but we do monitor what both of them watch. And the only bedroom with a tv in the house is mine.