My 7 year old will literally cry for 20 minutes when I tell him his iPad time is up. I set timers, warnings, everything but he acts like I'm torturing him. My wife gives in sometimes and then he expects it all the time. How do you guys enforce limits without the total meltdown?
This is the worst. My 7 year old does the exact same meltdown. I switched to letting him earn more time with chores or good behavior so now he feels like he has some control instead of me just being the bad guy taking it away.
Yeah man the crying is rough. My daughter used to do the same thing. Pro tip: don't negotiate or extend once the timer goes off. I know it sucks but giving in even once teaches them the crying works. Took about 2 weeks of consistency but it got way better.
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The timer thing never worked for my kids either. What actually helped was giving him a 5 minute warning, then a 2 minute warning, then when time's up we do something else together right away. Like I'd say 'okay iPad is done, now we're building with Legos' so his brain switches gears instead of just losing the thing cold turkey.