11 days ago, I unplugged the TV in our living room. “It just broke!” I told Baby M (who is very much not a baby anymore, and is in fact a vibrant 4.5 year old now). It only took her less than a minute to figure out that it was unplugged, but not before I swiftly swapped the batteries from their proper cathodes. We haven’t turned it on since. We haven’t had to.
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This is all my opinion!
Disclaimer that this is my blog that I pay to run and all of this is strictly my opinion and based on my own experience. Every household and child is different and we all need different things at different times. Your experience may vary.
Screens are ruining your child
Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme. I re-typed that heading about 10 times to sound less extreme. Please don’t be offended, you’re not doing anything wrong. I just have some strong opinions about the things that I have strong opinions about. And I have a lot of opinions about the place screens and distractions (a text! news alerts! an Amazon delivery!) have in our lives and the way they influence how we parent and the way they enhance anxiety…
Anyways….my kid is a different kid without screen time. Not a better or worse kid, but different. Transitions, meals, time management, I could go on… these things are different without the distractions of screens. I encourage you to try it for yourself.
How to Prepare for a Screen Free Summer
First off, I highly reccomend reading “The Anxious Generation“. This helped me have some evidence to back up my inklings that screen time and over-scheduling (that’s a whole other blog post with some more strong opinions) are a death knell for childhood.
Next, prepare for a confusion and maybe a breakdown. It took a day or two before my kid stopped asking to watch a show. It also took that amount of time for me to instinctively flip the batteries after my husband and I watched TV at night.
Always make sure that your toys are developmentally appropriate, at an accessible height, and in working condition.
What to do instead of TV in the summer
Literally, anything. You have no idea the games that your kid will come up with. There’s nothing better for the growing brain that that sweet, sweet unstructured independent play.
We have been sticking to “the classics” for this summer
Out of the house:
- Park
- Library
- Another park
- Another library
- Beach
- Grocery store (I’m trying to wean myself off of grocery pickup so that I can better interact with my community)
- Splash pad
- Post office (mail a friend a letter!)
We are on year 3 of 1000 Hours Outside. Will we ever actually complete the 1000 hours? Stay tuned…
In the house:
- Endless coloring
- Duplo
- Blocks
- Mini figures (our favorites are Peppas, Paw Patrol, and Schleich)
- Baking
- Stuffed animals
- Gardening
But O, what about when I need a break?
I have found that unstructured independent play has held my daughter’s attention way longer than any TV show has.
But O, what about when they’re exhausted?
Sometimes we get back from outdoor activities and she’s exhausted and I tell myself that I’m going to put on a movie, but she ends up pulling her Peppas or Paw Patrol on the couch and playing there. There are also Look and Find books or Tonies that are great for exhausted kids.
How to Handle “I’m bored”
“You’ll figure it out” is usually my answer. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. I have things that I need to do during the day, like cleaning, cooking, household management. My job as a SAHM is not to spend the day entertaining my children. In fact, I believe that constantly playing with them or entertaining them would be doing them a disservice.
They always figure it out. It’s the same notion as pausing after the ask for help and seeing if they can do it themselves. Sometimes my daughter will whine “I’m hungry” but then cleverly pushes a chair to the hutch, grabs a bowl, pours her own cereal and her own milk and solves her own problem. It’s not that I can’t or won’t help her, it’s that she gets a confidence boost from doing something herself.
Boredom –> creativity
Boredom –> problem-solving
Boredom –> imagination
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the amount of playing my daughter has been doing. Like full scale, imaginative play with toys that were collecting dust while she wasted away watching Peppa Pig on Netflix. A cardboard box becomes a table at her restaurant, a paper bag gets cut into butterfly wings… you know the drill (hopefully).
The way to handle “I’m bored” is to not handle it at all. Maybe some play suggestions here or there, maybe you start them off with a game, but let them figure it out.
I encourage you to let your babies be bored this summer. Let them figure it out. We only have influence for so long. You can always turn the TV back on.
What do you do about screen time and little kids? Have an hard and fast rules?
Let me know below!
O.
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