this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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The more important thing to me is building habits. I care less about how much they're watching vs how they're spending their time generally.
We have a rule where our kids need to read to be able to watch/play games, and we cap at 2hr/day. If they read 1hr, they can watch/play for 30min. My kids seem to have a pretty good mix of reading, watching/playing, and playing outside w/ friends, so I think it works.
Yea. We do something similar. It's an electronic allowance. If you use it it's done for the day. I change it for rainy days and vacations if we are traveling in the car or whatever. But it's easy to set up with Google family. And then you can see what they are doing. Not to be snoopy. Just to teach them the right way to protect themselves online. I don't want them to turn 18 and be completely lost.
I give my kids 30 min "free" on Saturdays, which gets doubled if they spend it in a game with a sibling. For trips, I make my kids all do the same thing, so either watch the same show, listen to the same audiobook, etc.
I personally don't digitally track what my kids do at all, I instead rely on trust and keeping devices in a public space. I tell them what's acceptable, and occasionally hang out with them while they're doing whatever. As they follow the rules, I give them more autonomy (e.g. my oldest may get their own PC soon-ish), but if they break the rules, they lose access. The only parental controls I use is for my 4yo, because she keeps getting into my Steam Deck and Switch w/o asking, but my other kids know the passcode on the Switch (not my Steam Deck, that's mine).
It's a bit bumpy, but I'm hopeful that having rules but no actual walls teaches them to learn to self-regulate and will help them in the long-run. It worked for me as a kid.
My oldest is a gamer just like me. We hang out in discords. That's why I monitor him. It's not necessarily him or the friends I know about that worry me. It's the random pedo like people that can come from many games and many interactions.
The youngest just watches silly videos and doesn't have a gaming bone in her body. So I just try to make it fair. Since they both need time away.