I know we aren’t the only ones who have woke up first thing in the morning and thought S**t we forgot to plug the Kindle or Ipad in before we went to bed, hell is about to break out!!!

Having 3 children with roughly a 5 year age gap we have parented with & without technology.
Mobile phones had only just taken off when we had Harvey, the dark screen and the one game (snakes) was not appealing enough for me to hand the phone over to him when I needed him to be quiet, He did, however, like to use my brick of a phone as a teething soother!

Even years later Harvey never had any devices as a young child nor did Alfie when he came alone.
Harvey got his first console (ps2?) when he was about 8, think it was Gareths old one we certainly didn’t go out and buy him one at that age. We brought Harvey an iPod when he was about 10 as he broke his hand & arm just as we were about to fly out to Turkey (we still went)
We then brought Harvey an iPad for Christmas when he was 11, he never asked for one but all his friends had one & we knew the secretly wanted one.

Alfie got a kindle fire on his 8th birthday & got a PS4 on his last birthday, age 10.

Oh, how times have changed since the older two were young. Homework is now online, maths test are online everything is online now, mainly, as most households have internet access in their homes.

I got a kindle fire a few years ago for my birthday, Teddie was about 2. The minute I spotted a kids game with Mickey Mouse clubhouse in it I downloaded it and handed the kindle to Teddie, BIG MISTAKE!

Our house is now filled with stressed out kids & parents arguing over where the bloody charger is!
The kindle charger is the same as the PS4 chargers, we have 2 kindles, 2 PS4 but only 1 bloody charger. 4 iPhones, 1 iPod (still going strong) 1 iPad but only 2 chargers, got loads of plugs but no leads!!

As a rule, I don’t set a time limit on devices but what I do do is monitor the children’s behaviour when they are on it.
I wrote before about the effects screen time has on children but even if I haven’t studied it the evidence shows itself.

When the boys (Harvey & Alfie) have been on their consoles for a few hours all I hear is banging on the floor, moaning and crying. To say it wines me up would be an understatement, it boils my blood and all I wanna do is shout and screen at them. It’s a bloody game for Christ sake but, it’s important to them so I do a little (sometimes a massive) inside scream to myself and give them a warning about their anger and frustration forwards the GAME!

Just after Christmas, we stopped Teddie having any electronic devices in the morning. Teddie was getting so distressed when I was telling him to pack away his Kindle as he had school, Teddie would just say

‘No school’

As much as devices can be a lifesaver they can also be the devil!! Teddie becomes easily wound up, screams ‘it’s not working’ especially when we are out as I cannot find a bloody wifi source, the game is lagging or worse still the battery goes!!!

Every night at bedtime we remind Teddie ‘No Kindle, No laptop, No iPad. Teddie only ever has the Kindle or laptop but if we didn’t cover all devices he’ll think he can have it as we haven’t said no to it-he’s not stupid!

When Teddie has his Kindle he goes off into his own world, he completely loses sight of what is going on around him. He doesn’t interact with any of us which really makes me sad. Once the Kindle runs out of battery that’s it for the day, you generally know when that happens as he throws it in the other direction!

Since we have stopped him going on devices morning, noon & night he plays more with his bricks & certainly bangs more often!

For us this works, it may not for everyone else, we are not the perfect parents, our children will have their devices when we r at a restaurant, in the car or on a long flight but we no longer allow them to have them all day.

FYI, the 101 ideas on how to unplug your child are crap!