Parenting Tips and Tools

When coaching parents, a reoccurring theme is how to manage  childrens  screen time, specifically during the school holidays.  At the beginning of the summer holidays, I established these *screen time boundaries with the kids for our “downtime days”. They are designed to encourage and reward good behavior while making the kids aware that screen time is limited and must be earned (they are not  automatically entitled to it!).  # parentcoach  # lifecoach # practicalparenting   *The length of my kids screen time  works for our family! And should be adapted to reflect your families requirements!   

Following my screen boundaries post, some of you contacted me requesting further details into how I implement the plan and communicate to my kids that screen time must be "earned".  Firstly, sit down with your kids and make a list of the behaviors you want to address (these can be a simple as stop antagonizing your sibling - a popular one in our house!) and a list of the daily chores they must complete. Make it clear the chores must be completed as part of their "earnings". Where possible, let them choose when to do them (this encourages personal responsibility) as long as they are done before their next block of screen time. Regarding enforcing good behavior, choose how you feel best it would work with your family.  I usually knock 5 minutes at a time off their next screen time allocations, depending on the extent of the misdemeanor! How many times have we been driven to the point of frustration and uttered the unavoidable words "that's it, screens are g...