Screen Time Intervention

I'm going to admit something kind of dreadful. My kids have all fallen into the habit of going to sleep with the television on. Every night. It started when Lucy didn't sleep through the night until she was 18 months old. Desperate times, people. So when Mathilda began sharing a room with Lucy, she was also subjected to the nighttime movie, which quickly became a sleep necessity for her too. Bethany and Connor never (okay...rarely) went to sleep with the TV on until sometime in the last year or so. I'm not even sure how it happened. But somehow it started, and before we knew it, they couldn't manage without the television lulling them to sleep either. Parenting fail.

I like to make little goals for the kids over the summer months, and this year one of them is to break the bedtime TV habit. This is a huge, tall order. Like, you have no idea. Or maybe you do, and I'm not the only one with this particular parenting fail? Anyway, I thought our recent vacation in Lexington would be the perfect time to get moving on kicking the habit, since there were no televisions in the bedrooms. And...it went well. Just perfectly fine. I read to the kids longer than usual, which helped things along. There was a little trouble falling asleep at times, but no tears (definitely  helps when there are simply no TVs in the bedrooms to facilitate the habit), and I'd call it a successful venture.

Then we got home and the kids automatically assumed they were back on full television bedtime viewing mode. Nope. I put my foot down, and I held it down firmly. It's been less than a week, but so far we're doing pretty well. Tears have been shed, but the tragedy of the matter seems to be wearing off somewhat. I told Lucy that if she really wants to use her TV pacifier at bedtime, she can go to bed an hour early and watch a DVD before I come up to read. Hasn't happened yet. They're getting over it. I have confidence that this goal will be reached.

I think I've mentioned that a friend remarked on Facebook that she doesn't allow her kids to watch television during the day in the summer. I thought this was a wonderful idea and decided to adopt it as well. Our magic hour is 6:00. Until that time, no one uses the TV or the computer. Unfortunately, I started noticing a little clock watching going on.

"Mom...mom...mom...how many hours until six o'clock, mom? Can I pick a show first, mom? Is it almost six o'clock, mom?"

So I had to add a provision to this new rule of ours. If any one of them badgers us about how long 'til six o'clock, that will mean that no one will get to use the TV or computer that day. One person will ruin it for everyone.

When we were in Lexington, the little girls wanted to watch a DVD on the second night. So I popped in  Barbie and the Magic of the Pegasus, and mid-way through it, the DVD player suddenly stopped working. There was a little bit of grumbling, but after that night, the television did not get turned on again all week. No one even asked for it once. There was even cable! So I know they are capable of refraining. Not having the TV on at all was really refreshing. We also had no WiFi, and my cell phone had no signal either! There's nothing like unplugging for a few days. Instead of television and internet, the kids read, wrote in journals, drew, played outside, worked in their Summer Bridge books (they were super excited that I made them bring these on vacation! Note: I'm being sarcastic.), and practically collapsed from exhaustion at the end of each busy day.

What my little sweeties don't yet know is that I'm pretty sure this rule is going to stay in place once school starts.

Do you have specific rules for television and computer usage for your kids?

Would you look at that, they're not in a TV trance!

Cool tree in the backyard at the cottage...not a computer screen in sight!