Gone are the times, when kids were given time for leisure and they would just play for hours in the backyard or the neighborhood  playground. The backyard kid has vanished somewhere amidst all the smartphones, television and gaming consoles. Gadgets have become a perfect baby sitter to engage the kids while parents are busy with their work. Moreover, in current scenario, where books have also gone digital, it has become all the more difficult to put kids in a time schedule when it comes to spending time on easily available screens like tablets, phones and desktops around them.

According to Common Sense Media’s 2013 study, Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America, eight and less than eight year old kids spend around two hours a day with some sort of screen (TV, tablet, smart phone, or video game).  And the older the child, the more they are lured in by the glowing screen: children ages 8 to 18 spend, on average, close to 45 hours per week watching TV, playing video games, instant messaging, and listening to music online. This is far more time than they should spend with their parents or in the classroom, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Too much screen time is leading to problems like obesity in kids. Screen-time is stealing the valuable time of kid which they can spend in crawling, walking, climbing and exploring their environment. Physical activities help in a child’s overall development. Playing with mud or jumping in water are the part of learning process. Kids need to interact with other children, which is crucial for learning to talk and relate to people.

There is no magic number of hours to specify how much time is just right for a kid. Avoid the battles and use some different ideas to reduce the time your child spends glued to a gadget. Parents can also set a good example by limiting their own TV viewing, smart phone and video game usage. There is a connection between how much TV a parent watches and how much the child watches, so try to lead by example. Spend some quality time with your kids. Check out some simple ways to bond with the kids.

This will not only strengthen your bond with your kids but will also help in reducing the screen-time.

Today the parental responsibility is not to make kids abide to a time frame but to keep a track where the kids are investing their time. There are a lot of apps and trackers which help the purpose and are available easily. Most Pediatrics strongly discourage screen time for infant and toddlers. Excessive TV viewing increases the risk of attention problems, obesity, and poor school performance. Include unstructured play time and other creative which allows babies to think creatively, solve problems, and develop reasoning.

Babies don’t learn from TV or smartphone. They just get mesmerized with the sound, pictures that’s constantly moving in front of their eyes. In fact language development slow down if babies screen time is more. Playing favorite cartoon on mobile/TV while feeding child can be harmful. Screen time can distract baby and not notice when she feels full. It is very essential to be attentive while feeding baby and screen time can get in the way for all of you.

There is no demarcation that we can set, each child and parent is different, so that a parent has to decide which way he has to take their child. We need to take account of both negatives & positives of the new technologies and adjust our lifestyle in such a way that we inculcate the positive traits to fullest in our kids.

The concern for now is to involve kids in activities which build their personalities in the long run. A kid today is exposed to everything and it is very important that we create an environment including some screen time which is child-friendly and doesn’t hamper their growth and interests. When you limit screen time, you give your child the gift of more time to read, engage in active play, and be a healthier child.