JANIS JOSEPH
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
Are you doing your part to limit your child’s screen time?
Did you know that screen time is making kids moody, crazy and lazy? Do you need to read more reports, statistics, and facts to know and understand that too much screen time is detrimental to our children’s mental health? No? Then then take to 30 day Fresh Steps Unplugged Challenge to help guide your children off of their screens.
Post family fun activities on the Fresh Steps Behaviour Consulting Facebook page to show alternative choices and change device time into family time! A family fun prize package will be awarded to one lucky family that posts their activity.
What can you do instead:
- Walk around the block
- Walk the track
- Take a hike along the log train trails
- Explore Stamp Falls or Sproat Lake Public Park
- Walk the Dyke
- Kick the soccer ball around
- Play a game of catch ; football or softball
- Visit a play ground
- Skate board together
- Go on a bike ride
- Build a model, do a puzzle
- Bake, cook, create, draw, paint
- Go to the library, or read books in your home
Just a few small suggestions to get you started.
Model the behaviour you want to see in your kids. Parents are their children’s first and most important teachers, so practice what you preach. Find and make the time to help support your children get themselves off of screens and into the “real world” full of purpose and opportunity. Change what screen time looks like by spending time as a family watching movies or TV. Give one hour chunks of free time on the screen, and learn what your children are watching and doing on their screens. Go through their accounts, and have them add you to their pages to see what they are posting; be a part of your children’s screen world rather than a parent who knows nothing about what their child does during their screen time. Be the parent who makes and maintains the rules of screen time, and stay accountable for your child’s time.
Remember, you are the one who (most likely) bought the device, so you are the one responsible to maintain a healthy balance.