Kids and Screen Time: A School-Age Guide

Chapter 1: The New Normal: What Your School-Age Child's Screen Time Is Really About

You are not imagining things. The last time you felt this level of control over your child’s daily life, they were still wearing Velcro sneakers and you could physically carry them away from a screen when you’d had enough. Now they’re five feet tall, they can read your passcode over your shoulder, and they have strong opinions about why the Wi-Fi being down is a personal attack on their character. You’re tired of the negotiations that start before breakfast. You’re tired of the guilt that creeps in when you see them staring at a tablet for an hour while you try to make dinner. And you’re really tired of the feeling that you’re the only parent on the planet who can’t seem to get this “screen time thing” under control.

Here’s what I want you to hear first, before we talk about charts, timers, or scripts: This is not a sign that you’re failing. This is not a sign that your child is broken, or addicted, or destined for a life of doomscrolling. This is a sign that your child is growing up. And growing up, in this particular decade, involves screens the way growing up in the 1980s involved Saturday morning cartoons and the way growing up in the 1950s involved the family television set. The difference is that the screens are smarter, smaller, and infinitely more compelling. They have to be, because they’re competing