Ditch screen time rules, try this instead

A simple reframe that will change how you think about "rules"

🙋🏻‍♂️Tired of kids complaining about “rules” around screen time? Stop making rules, and start reframing it this way:

👉🏻Instead of focusing on “rules” which tend to mean “things we can’t do” try reframing it as “skills” or “what we need to learn to be able to do new things”.

🧠Why do this? Because rules feel constricting- they feel like “no’s” that are being forced on us. But skills are things that allow us to access new privileges and abilities.

🎮Think of it like a video game: video games rarely need to tell us rules. If we do something that’s not allowed, the game just won’t let us do it. If we want to access a new ability, or a new level, then there are SKILLS we need in order to gain that privilege.

🤯By shifting the conversation to skills, we can help our kids see the reasons behind our choices, AND we can help them focus on learning new abilities

🤔You may notice that the reframes of rules sound a lot like logical consequences. They are! We’re making clear the “why” behind our rules, which are often skill based reasons. This also allows us to still fall back on our “rule” if needed; if we give kids the option of practicing the skill of turning the TV off, and they choose not to, then we can still fall back on our rule of turning the TV off for them. We can further reinforce that by saying “you’re still working on this skill. I’ll keep helping you as long as you need it”.

🤞🏻Remember- one day our kids will need to use these skills without us around to reinforce them. Making them aware of our choices and our reasons can help them build those skills so they can do these things independently one day.