how to help kids navigate, limit technology during break

With summer upon us vacation is *** time for kids to relax. Maybe get outside unwind *** bit, but it’s 20, So that also means they’ll likely be inside picking up smartphones, tablets, video game controllers, you name it and likely attempting to use them for hours every day. That adds up over the course of the summer break. So how do you set kids on the right path and get them to limit their virtual time? Recently I spoke with the head of *** group working to help families strike the right balance this summer, Please welcome to the broadcast Tracy Foster, the co founder and executive director of start or stand together and rethink technology. It’s *** national nonprofit group founded by moms in our area helping parents navigate technology with their kids Tracy. Thank you so much for taking the time to be on this program And as summer gets started. I know this is top of mind for many families, screens are everywhere. Thousands of kids are out and have more access to them. So what are your thoughts as we get into the summer here? Yes. Well first of all, thank you so much for having us as *** mom. This is when I’m living right now, when school ends, transition comes and our routine is kind of thrown up in the air. And if we aren’t intentional, it can easily just land on screens as our filler. And I want to start by saying that screen time is not all bad. We think about three different categories. So it’s not just about quantity of screen time, but also quality of screen time. And we break them down into creating. That’s when our kids are making stop motion videos or finding recipes or doing something where their devices allowing them to create something cool connecting, which would be, you know, zoom calls or texting or phone calls if they ever do such *** thing. And then the third category is consuming and that is something like watching amazing dude, perfect videos or scrolling social media and that’s something that if we’re not careful, can become just the default, especially through summer when all of *** sudden we have so much more time on our hands. And so we encourage parents to try to be intentional to say, hey, what is it that we want to have br routine for summer? How do we want to think about screens? What should be their place? And we have some different ideas for how you can kind of do *** reset or kind of *** plan for this summer to help everyone get on the same page. I like what you say because there are shades of this right technology isn’t all bad, but you do have to set some limits. Is that easier or harder? In the summer? I had *** couple of parents knew that I was doing this segment. Wanted me to ask you, is it okay to let the kids have *** little bit more screen time, but I guess it matters on what they’re using it for. It absolutely matters on what they’re using it for and it matters what it’s displacing because one of the biggest challenges that screen time causes is what you’re missing out on. So sometimes we encourage parents to use *** philosophy of when then, so if there are important things that you want your kids to get done when you’ve completed chores, when you’ve played outside, then you can have this screen time because it’s absolutely not *** problem. The problem is just if it’s displacing these other things that are really important for our household, important for our own physical ability to not become *** zombie. And so by defining what are some of the things that I want my kids to be doing, then we can figure out how can screen time fill in some of those gaps but not actually take over. Um, so we’ve created *** summer bucket list. That’s one place to start. What are some of the things that we want to learn that we want? Who are some of the people we want to connect with? So you can start by thinking about what you’re standing for? Um, and then say, okay, great. How does technology fit in around that? Are there apps out there that might be able to, to kind of do some of the work for you? Maybe there has to be some that might limit screen time on the devices themselves. Right. Absolutely. On Apple, Their screen time, there’s *** similar program on android, I think you can even just use traditional timers at different times and have that conversation. Um, so I do think that limiting the time and having *** conversation with your kids about hey, how much time um is right, but I also think it’s so important to help them spark their imagination and you yourself of what will they do once that timer goes off? Because if it’s just about the timer, it can feel really constricting and if it’s also, well, hey, great, yes, here you can go do your video games for 30 minutes or whatever it is. We’ll put *** screen time thing on how long you can do social media, but then guess what? We’re going to have you go do X or Y. One thing I want to mention though is that for *** lot of kids in this generation um Burn *** brown calls it an FFT an effing first time our kids are not used to being bored. We as parents feel the pressure to be cruise directors. So many of our kids have an entertainment device at their fingertips at all times. And so this summer can actually be *** really powerful time to let your kids have some independent time and so say, hey, okay, great. You can be on your screens, but then after that, go play outside and see what they come up with. But I will warn you, It takes about 23 minutes before our brains stop thinking about the device that we were just on. So for those 23 minutes our kids might be complaining so much and and Renee brown talks about that, they might be like basically feeling like they’re dying like what else do they do? But once they work through that and find some other activities it can actually be so productive and good for them because it’s good for their development, but then also good for the rest of the summer so that you’re not getting as much nagging. The other thing I’ll say is coming up with some mantra can really help um like the wind then or some people say things like brain building, chores, screens outdoors, something my biggest focus in my own family is trying to remove *** million micro decisions of can we now, can we now, can we now? And so the more you can create those boundaries, you don’t have to be *** bad guy, you don’t have to be making as many decisions on the fly and they just kind of know what to expect. You’ve given us *** lot to think about Tracy foster with start. Thank you so much for your time. If you’re interested in learning more about what start has to offer or taking part in an online workshop. Go online till we start now dot org

Screens and summer: how to help kids navigate, limit technology during break

Updated: 6:00 PM CDT May 29, 2022

Screens and summer: how to help kids navigate, limit technology during break

Screens and summer: how to help kids navigate, limit technology during break