Parental control on screen time

Making your kids understand the harmful impacts of their adapted lifestyle is much more difficult. As a result, you must take the initiative to change your parenting methods so your kid won't have to suffer. One such area where parents have to pay special attention is screen time.

Exposing your kid to the screen for prolonged hours will have an adverse impact on them in different ways than you can comprehend. You may not realize this now, but after a couple of years, you and your kids will have to suffer the consequences of the same. Keeping this in mind, we have discussed how you can limit the screen time for your kid while excelling as a parent in every sense.

Limiting the exposure to screen

The first and foremost thing you have to do is limit the total exposure time of your kid to the screen for the day. Whether your kid has to attend school online or study on YouTube doesn't matter. If your kid has to do any of these compulsory activities in front of a laptop or PC or with a mobile, you have to cut down the time of watching cartoons or movies on TV or mobile.

All in all, you have to limit your child's exposure to the screen by any means. So, prioritize the screen activities for your kid and accordingly set the schedule so they don't miss essential activities that can only be done through the digital hardware interface.

Engaging in physical and cognitive activities

There is no hard and fast rule that you must use your mobile or laptop to keep your child engaged while completing your work without any disturbance. Naturally, your kids will always come back to you for your attention. So, instead of depending on laptops or mobiles to increase your child's engagement in any activity, you can go for physical activities or cognitive learning.

For example, you can give them a jigsaw puzzle and ask them to solve it while completing your work. Similarly, let your kid play with your pet outside in the backyard while you finish up all the work that you have in that time. The more they are engaged in these activities, the better will be their physical growth and cognitive development.

Making them work along with you

Watching movies or shows with your kids isn't the ideal way to bond with your child. One of the main principles of parenting is to create a bond of friendship and trust with the kids. But screen time is not the solution for that.

Instead, you can take your kid to your work and finish the entire task together. For example, allow your kid to whisk up the chocolate or batter when baking cupcakes. This will keep them engaged and help you bond with your child outside the screen.

Opting for storybooks and other methods

You often allow your kids to watch movies or cartoons to divert their attention and feed them meals. Similarly, sometimes you also let the kids watch movies for a long time and try to complete the household chores in between.

Instead of doing so, give your child a storybook or some problems to solve. This will build up a good habit since they won't depend on mobiles or laptops to keep themselves engaged. Reading story books and other types of books and newspapers is a good habit that will help them greatly in the future.

Conclusion

Being a parent is never easy. There are so many challenges and roadblocks that every parent has to go through and deal with. Sometimes, these challenges get worse due to certain lifestyle habits. You may have to change your parenting methods to ensure that your child does not suffer from the adverse effects of long-term exposure to screens.