Is screen time and television at the end of the day a challenge for you and your family?
In this family, my friend and her son arrive home. They’ve been out all day, and everyone is a little spent and disconnected after separate days out in the world.
Ben (who is 8): dumps his bag down by the door and jumps on his screen, logging into his favourite streaming platform to watch cartoons.
Mum (my friend), asks: “How was school today?”
Ben (now engrossed in cartoons), replies: “fine.”
Mum (a flash of irritation), thinks: “I wish he wouldn’t get stuck on the computer so fast. Anyway, I’ve got better things to do than try to extract anything from him now.”
In the perfect world, it would be great to do some Special Time at this point. It’s a great way to reconnect, and (with younger kids at least) much more effective than asking questions (-; But most of us find it hard at that time of day to be organised enough to manage Special Time.