Limiting Screen Time

Randy, Austin, and I have just finished a whirl wind two weeks of travel.  Over the weekend, we spent more than 13 hours in the car to be a part of my niece Molly's baptism.  How did Austin do on the trips?  Amazing, thanks to the car DVD player and movies like Ice Age, Cars, and Madagascar.  Ugh, needless to say, his screen time has been at an all time high with the constant travel, so we decided that we were going to set a goal to limit his screen time to keep him from becoming a electronics junkie.

I'm the first to say that I'm guilty of indulging Austin's screen time.  He usually gets an hour or two first thing in the morning (sometimes I need a few extra z's in the morning since I've been battling pregnancy insomnia).  He is also a pro at using my IPad and IPhone and is notorious for watching videos of himself as well as finding apps to play. He requests shows after nap (depending on how much he watches in the morning, he may get one show).  Shouldn't I be able to entertain my child without having to resort to using electronic devises and the tv?

I'm happy to say that yesterday I was successful in limiting Austin's screen time to 30 minutes of PBS's Super Why! What did we do to keep busy? Practiced letter recognition and drawing pictures on Austin's new Magna Doodle with  magnet letters, played firetrucks, read books, practiced somersaults, nap time, played with stickers, played with Bananagram tiles, found similar shapes and colors with our Blokus board game, etc.  Needless to say, it was a busy day for me to find new activities to keep him going and there were multiple times throughout the day where I had to turn down his request for more "tb's".  But we did it, and I'm proud of us!  Now that its done do I think I could keep it up every day?  Probably not, especially once the new baby arrives and I have to split my time between newborn baby care and entertaining a toddler.  I do think that it is a worthwhile goal to set.  I think screen time is one of the nasty habits that become ingrained in our daily routines and it can be a hard habit to break, especially when you are staying at home on a daily basis.  My plan is to hopefully break us of the habit before the new baby comes so that Austin doesn't come to expect tv and other electronic devises as entertainment when Mommy is busy with baby.  I'm sure there will be cheat days but we will take it one day at a time.

Here is a link for suggestions on how to limit screen time for you and your family.  Do you have any other suggestions or ideas for how to limit screen time for yourself or your kiddos?