Environment

Is your kid receiving more screen time during this time of the pandemic? Do they constantly ask for the phone or tablet? Are they more whiny and irritable? How in the world can we take that first step to decrease this "addiction" to the screen?

I once had a friend explain to me that he hid their TV in the closet for over 5 months when their 4 year old child was becoming so entitled to his TV time. The Dad hid it one night after bedtime. In the morning he told his son... "The TV is broken and we had to bring it to the store" He felt bad that his kid kept asking for the first few weeks "Is the TV still being fixed?" ...their son must have been thinking...Geez, how long does it take to fix a TV!?

Their son stopped asking for the TV all together and found things to keep himself busy or played with his parents.
Finally the Dad had enough of no TV and having to instead engage his son...and brought the TV out again after 5 months. Sometimes just changing the environment takes our authority as a parent out of the equation. Instead of us having to say...

"No you can't have it" "Not today" "You need to find something else to do"
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It's one more thing we are limiting them and TAKING AWAY their perceived freedom and preferred items.