Pandemic taught me that giving my kids tablets gets me an hour of peace and I've never looked back. Now my 5 and 8 year old are basically glued to screens. Started limiting it this week and they're losing their minds. Anyone else dealing with withdrawal behavior? How long before they adjust back to normal activities?
We had the same problem here. One thing that helped was making Friday nights special without screens - we do smores by the fire and the kids actually look forward to it more than the tablets now.
Man, you're being too hard on yourself. The pandemic was rough on all of us and you did what you had to do to survive. Now that things are settling down, maybe start small with some activities the kids actually enjoy doing with you, like sports or getting outside.
Don't beat yourself up too much. You survived a pandemic with two kids. That's the baseline for success right there. Now you're being intentional about changing it and that's the important part.
I feel this in my soul. The pandemic really did normalize the tablet babysitter. Now my kids ask for screen time before they even ask for food some days.
Don't be too hard on yourself. An hour of peace is worth gold when you've got little ones. I used to feel guilty about this until I realized my kids are actually learning stuff from some of those apps.
Real talk though, at some point you gotta set boundaries or it becomes a monster. I let mine get out of hand and now we're doing a reset. It's rough but doable.
You're not alone in this at all. The pandemic totally reset what felt normal for screens. Now I'm trying to dial it back and the kids actually lose it when I try to take the tablets away. It's a process.
Real talk, some screen time is fine. An hour of peace so you can keep your sanity is not a failure. Just try to be more intentional about it going forward instead of default mode.
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The fact that you recognize it and want to change it puts you ahead of a lot of people. Start small. Maybe cut out one tablet session a week and replace it with something else. It won't fix overnight but you'll get there.