Ideas to Limit Screen Time
“Do not be confirmed to this works, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:2
I recently read Habits of the Household by Justin Whitman Earley @justinwhitmelearley. In his chapter on screen time he asks the question about how much screen time is too much. However, he goes deeper.
I personally don’t like my children watching too much TV because it makes them zombie like. Their creativity seems to lag. Earley goes deeper than the creativity part. He discusses how either screens are forming our children or we the parents are forming our children.
I had never seen screen time as this battle of formation and influence. I just knew it was the best. However, Earley’s argument made me think a lot deeper about what we are letting our children watch.
Our children’s formation includes character, wisdom, creativity, emotional intelligence, and knowing the difference between good and evil, true and false, beauty and ugliness.
The goal is not to shield our children from evil, explicit language, sex, violence, and dangerous ideas. Instead, the goal is to give our children the necessary tools to deal with the world’s immorality.
Make sure to select good quality entertainment some sort of good moral teaching and is entertaining. Sadly many of the newer programs are twaddle.
Below are some tips on how to set boundaries on screen time while making it quality screen time:
* Set Limits
* Family Movie Nights
* Screenless car rides
* Company over movie night
* Select good content over new content
* Media that expands or educates the mind
* Make a watch list
I will be expanding on these later on in my blog. But for now, what do you think? Can you add any other tips on that list?
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