How To Manage Screen Time Over Summer Break

The days are longer and the heat is rising. We have closed the books for the school year and officially entered the summer of 2021!

This is both exciting and exhausting! After just going through the motions last summer, I had to figure out how I was going to provide structure and responsibility to my kids during this summer break. I am excited to share what we are doing now to manage their screen time over Summer break that will help in this area.

Last Year

Last year, my kids woke up and sat on their devices all day. Since they couldn’t see their friends in person, they would call their peeps on Messenger and sit on the call for hours playing video games or chatting.

Us parents would laugh that we knew all about each others ceilings because they weren’t even looking at eachother. But I think they just relished in feeling close to someone, even if not in proximity.

Now normally this would make me nuts but I truly felt sympathetic to there plight so I let it slide. Plus, working from home, I didn’t want to spend time arguing with my kids and my stress level was through the roof so arguments with them would take on a life of their own.

But NOT THIS SUMMER. This summer I have a plan and although there are a few bumps in the road and some arguments, it is going rather well.

I am so tired of my kids lack of desire to do anything. The more they are on their devices, the more difficult it is to get them to be functional members of the household, let alone society! And then the tantrums come, ending in a meltdown by everyone including yours truly. I realize I allowed this to happen but I decided this summer I need to take control.

I am also concerned about their anxiety, social skills, creativity, health and so much more. I don’t want them to keep missing out on experiencing life!

So that leads me to…

The Summer Screen Plan!

I made some RULES for summertime after searching on Pinterest for inspiration. A lot of people had similar ideas but I wanted to create a plan that was more in line with my family’s needs.

I basically created a Pay-to-Play System…

Every week day the kids have a list of items they are expected to complete in order to be allowed access to their screens. This includes laptops, tablets, phones, gaming systems, switches and, depending on my mood, TV. So basically no screen time except during meals.

Morning Expectations

They are to do a few things when they awake:

• Brush their teeth
• Get dressed
• Eat breakfast
• Straighten up their floor

I know these seem like a gimme but not with these two! I have to beg, borrow and steal just to have them do normal functional daily activities!

Brain Matters

After the morning items are done, they are to move on to some activities that trigger those brain waves to flow! I give them about 15-20 minutes for each of the following activities:

• Reading
• Creativity time – making or building something
• Writing or drawing
• Completing a day in the summer workbooks their school provided

The first thing I had them write was a summer bucket list so I could gage what they wanted to do and hopefully get them semi-jazzed to write something.

Let’s Get Physical

The lack of movement in my home is staggering! I needed to shake up the sedentary activity. Between that and the lack of sunlight my kids see, I am becoming concerned about their fitness and health. So at some point within the rest of the daily to-dos they are expected to do the following…

• 30 us minutes of outdoor play
• 15 minutes or cleaning

I won’t lie, the outdoor play thus far has really not been going well for us. Rain, fertilizer, allergies, and my inability to take the time away from work to argue with them all factor into it making it a real struggle to check the boxes.

My kids also do not like going outside. I can’t imagine my life as a kid without it. I mean my mom had to force me out there but so much fun happened in the yard. But I digress, this has to be my focus for the rest of the summer.

As for the cleaning task, the idea is more about finding a target area in the house (particularly in ther rooms) and focus on organzing it. The goal is to have everything gone through and organized by the time school starts back up. I just can’t live like this anymore! LOL

After all this is done, then they can have their screens.

Realistically, they could be done by lunch but they would rather argue and whine. And the minute I become lax about it, they take all sorts of advantage. So I have learned that I need to be pretty strict.

I try to be flexible enough to tweak the plan along the way when something isn’t working.

The Rewards

Since implementing the Summer Screen Plan, I have hear them playing and having unsolicited fun together. I see them beam with pride as they show me what they created. Sometimes they even forget about their devices all together and just play with no care of a timer nor thought of ther device!

When this happens, I know I am doing something right. There is no No whining. No complaining. They are just having fun! For those times, it is all worth it.

Have you adopted any rules or schedules that are helping your family this summer? I would love to hear about them in the comments.