Screentime Changes

The American Academy of Pediatrics just made a few changes to their screen time recommendations. For all the moms out there, they've lifted the ban for kids under 2. Their changes aren't really the subject of the post. As I read the article I was thinking- yay! Slightly less guilt. It's not like Grace watches TV but the boys started around 15 months. They never watched tons, but a little bit here and there so I could make dinner, or take a shower, or so they would stop screaming. Terrible I know. Anyway, the comments on the article are what got to me. Many people, let's go with non parents commented that children shouldn't need television anyway, that mothers today are just lazy and our mother and grandmothers did just fine without tv. Let's back up here. First off, our mothers and even some of our grandmothers used tv too, they weren't living in the dark ages. Admit it, you all remember Duck Tales and Doug. TV might not have been as readily available to them as it is to us, but they had it. But beyond that, today's mother spend more time interacting with their kids than ever before (well since we started measuring). Maybe it is because there has been a shift in our culture but mothers spend more time down on a kids level engaged in kid activities than our mothers and grandmothers did. And many more of today's "stay at home moms" are also work from home part time moms. I remember having friend's with moms that sold MaryKay or Avon, but today moms are engaging in career level jobs from the comfort (haha that's hilarious) of their own homes. Also, I have to say, remember when your mom locked you outside to play, today maybe she might give you the option of an educational show or 100 degrees with 90% humidity? Maybe that was just us (no I am sure it wasnt), there's less of that today. Remember roaming the neighborhood on your way to your friend's house (sorry Mom, but sometimes on our way to a friend's house we might have explored the canyon a bit more than was allowed), today's kids would NEVER be allowed to do that (whether you agree or not about if this is right it's true, wandering alone... not so common). So while we say that today's parents are lazy and begin to wax nostalgic for the Donna Reid's of yesteryear let's be realistic, today's mom is busy but she isn't lazy. Sometime she wants to pee alone, and let's be honest a little bit (not hours and hours) of screen time might not ruin your child, it might give you a few free minutes so that the overall happiness level of the family is well... better. So seriously let's stop with the mom shaming, we are all just doing the best we can in our overtired mom zombie state. Some day we will look back and realize our kids became brilliant doctors, lawyers, and accountants (come on, I'm bound to have at least one) even though they may have watched just a little bit of Odd Squad.

On a related note video chatting is no longer considered screen time because it included human interaction. FaceTime with grandparents isn't a beneficial as talking face to face but it turns out the child reacts differently to this type of screen time than to a show.