"This Is How Our Family Balances Screen Time With Family Time Effortlessly"

“I have two daughters, 10-year-old Mannat and 6-year-old Nishka. So, we have only installed YouTube Kids on the tablet we have given them. But as parents, we also respect and understand that our kids desire to have screen time; so, instead of being overly strict about it, we have tried to set healthy boundaries around it. A fixed schedule around screen time has helped them know when to stop!

We also at times incentivize their screen time with their good behavior. If they have behaved good all day or week, they can have 15 minutes of extra screen time. When it comes to digital tech usage, both my husband and I have established some “House Rules,” which are working for us so far. And talking to the children about the perils of the internet and free content on the web is a constant in our home.

My daughters with their Nana-Nani

House Rules

These are some of our screen time rules:

• We have a fixed screen time of two hours for kids in which they can watch TV or play on the tab. They mostly watch shows on Disney.
• We also have a Google Family Link app to monitor what the kids are watching.
• For Netflix too, we have a separate kids’ account and a password-protected parents’ account.
• During meals, all of us try not to watch anything or answer our phones, so that all of us can enjoy the meals together.

Productive Screen Time

Let’s admit it, it’s not possible to keep children away from screens in today’s world. But we can use technology and screen time productively. This is how, we as a family, use screen time as a bonding time to be together:

• We try to have a Friday night/Sunday afternoon movie date with the kids. We all select a movie to watch either in a cinema hall or at home, and we love that time together with buckets of popcorn.
• As we live in the US, WhatsApp is our go-to medium for video chats with parents in India. The kids love to chat with their grandparents on video calls. It’s a great medium for my kids to share their thoughts and share day-to-day stories with them. They particularly love sending voice messages and songs to their grandparents.
• My elder one is turning 10. Although she hasn’t yet started her periods, I have educated her about that. Once she gets her period, I would love to introduce her to the period tracker app. She has started reading books on Kindle and is amazed at the vast content, while my 6-year-old loves doing creative art and craft shows on sites like ABCmouse.com.

Traveling and preparing for various festivals as a family are our ways of spending quality family time without gadgets.

As a family, we strive for a balanced approach—we recognize the importance of limited screen time for kids, as they learn a lot through digital media, but we also make sure our kids know that the time we spend together as a family is most important."

By Nidhi Gupta

(As told to Monali Bordoloi)