We’ve all heard so much about the benefits of limiting screen time for kids. When not in front of screens, kids play more creatively; the use more words; the read more, and they notice more things in the world around them.

On Saturday night we headed down to Brooklyn to see our good friends Helene and Thiago. The parents of two young boys aged four and two, Helene and Thiago do not have a TV! The might put on the occasional cartoon, but generally speaking, their children play freely and are not in front of screens.

Limiting Your Child’s Media Use

You hear a lot of tips when it comes to getting kids off of iPads, iPhones and TV’s, many of which we’ve tried in our household. Surveillance cops in our home, we walk around shouting out “put that iPad down” or “your iPad time is over.” That’s one way to limit screen time or, better said, to barter over screen time.

When it comes to keeping children’s use of screen time under control, though, the best solution I’ve witnessed is to take off someplace new and simply not have any devices within reach or sight. Think of it as a mini summer camp. Such happened to us last Saturday.

We arrived and I did hear a few grumbles from my older boys: “what are we going to do here all night” and “this will be boring.”

Got tips regarding how to guide your child with screen time? Weigh in below!

Within minutes, those comments had gone by the wayside and all the children were sitting down enjoying a yummy dinner and playing.

Here’s the dinner party! Helene with her lookalike, the Cloudmom Baby aka Marielle. Me, Helene and Thiago. Helene is French and Thiago Brazilian (but also French, having grown up there). They are a great couple with a zest for life! The kids didn’t need any help figuring out how to have a fun evening. First, they invented a game with a big beach ball in the hallway, counting up how many times the ball was passed. They had a race on plastic toy cars. And then they played doctor. Here you see Beckett the patient and Marielle the doctor. I hadn’t seen my kids play so creatively, nor have so much fun, for ages! Pick a time and leave the iPhones, iPads and TV’s behind. Go somewhere new, experience it together as a family, and allow your kids the time and space to try something new and have fun.

Thanks for reading!

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