Limit Your Child’s Screen Time and Experience These 3 Benefits

1. Attitudes

In our house, screen time often means the consumption of outside influences that directly impact my children's attitudes. Sure, these don't necessarily evolve into extreme behavioral issues, but I do see the effects of it, nonetheless.

For example, some YouTube channels are innocent enough at first sight. Their intention isn't to propagate any agenda other than entertainment. But after hours of watching these channels, I've witnessed my children literally go through personality shifts. They begin to subconsciously imitate the person/people they're admiring on social media, even going so far as to acquire an accent, slang, or even a transfer of body language.

Watch your child after they've spent long periods watching their favorite TV show or media channel. Do you see a shift in their attitude?

My children often become testy. They are shorter on patience with each other. They question my authority more. They even adopt an element of entitled superiority. This surprises me. While I can't entirely answer why this happens—especially when I go back and watch the media myself and identify nothing overtly wrong with it—it still happens.

I believe this type of media engorgement creates an attitude of discontentment within my children. Whether they realize it or not, they either become enticed to want something they do not have, to be someone they are not, and to alter who they are in order to gain popularity and admiration.

When we took a proactive stance on limiting screen time, we could visually witness a deflation of attitude in our children. Respect became more pronounced, simple childlike play and interaction returned, and sweetness came back into our home.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/PIKSEL

2. Interaction

Oh, I'll admit this one was a bit painful initially. If the screen wasn't entertaining my children, they were more likely to interact with me. And I have things I need to get done. This rather quickly became a problem. Because if the screens were removed and I needed to work on tasks, it would take what felt like eons of time to help filter my children's complaints of boredom, pronouncements of nothing to do, and annoyed irritation that I'd even suggest they assist with chores.

The effort to squelch the complaints felt hardly worth it when I only needed to give them what they wanted: screen time.

So we had to lay down ground rules for them. Expectations that could be put into place and give the kids an element of security. While it takes some organization to be scheduled, you can create a general order of events for the day that can easily be deviated from if needed. But the kids find a sense of peace in knowing what to expect.

We enacted a time for chores. A period of time for reading. Free time to do anything they wanted outside of screen time. A chance to play outside and, if the weather didn't permit, some alternative options to do inside that engaged them in some sort of physical activity.

This also inspired interaction with my kids and not the focused kind of interaction as one might think. It was important to me to teach my children that, yes, I would have periods of time I would focus on them, but there were also times I needed to get things done. But now the "getting things done" has become interesting as my kids pop in to tell me something they're doing, show me how much they got to read, engage me in the picture they're creating, or ask me to pause my task just long enough to watch them solve a Rubix cube.

Interaction like this is community. It's learning to exist together without requiring or demanding the parent's undivided attention. This type of interaction is so important. It merges personalities and patience. It teaches respect for one's time and one's interests. It helps parents and children develop camaraderie.

3. Rest

Your kids may not know it, but the constant interaction with the flickering screen and the dopamine highs is exhausting. That's one reason you see a spike in mental health issues and, oddly enough, in poor sleep habits. Exhaustion becomes engrained in the body and mind to the point that your children do not learn how to rest. They become whirlwinds of constant energy because slowing down means the threat of boredom. It means exercising their minds. It means that their brains will not be spoon-fed information to keep them occupied.

Without screen time, your children will learn to rest. This rest may include a concentration on something quiet like a puzzle or an hour of running and playing in the sprinkler. Both rest the mind, the eyes, and the body from the constant sparking of small amounts of flashy and pointless information that leaves them tired, unable to repeat what they even really watched and fidgety because things are quiet.

Help your children embrace peace and meditation, and silence. This doesn't mean they must sit in a corner and stare at a wall. But encourage them to engage their creativity and linear sides. Through art and music, or numbers and science, children can find so many outlets in which to slow down their minds and bodies, even as their brains work hard and their heart and lungs pump with energy.

This is healthy exhaustion. The kind of exhaustion that inspires sleep at night, the mind to rest, and the soul to revitalize.

Limiting your child's screen time may take more energy from you. You may need to give more focused attention than you're used to. You may find an addiction withdrawal that will erupt in tantrums, complaints, and tears until your child finds their new normal.

But this new normal is beneficial. In fact, it's critical. Your children cannot thrive in an environment crafted with lights and thirty-second shorts. They need to be nurtured. They need you. They need time with themselves.

Let's be intentional to give that to them. Let's raise a generation of healthy and inspired children.