As you might know, Sienna is a big fan of watching 'egg surprise' on YouTube (she even has her own channel.. that we really need to update!). She watches it either on my iPhone or on the iPad or occasionally on our TV in our room through Apple TV. She used to watch it every now and then but the more she watches, the more she wants to watch and it seems to be becoming an every-day issue.
Several times a day she will ask to watch egg surprise and I generally always say no first as I want her to watch as little as possible as I know too much TV is bad for children. As soon as I say no, she literally has a meltdown and gets really upset.. it has started becoming such a battle, I just dread her asking as I know how she'll react when I say no. I mentioned her attitude on my Instagram and a lot of you agreed your child is the same! How do you deal with it? I have tried explaining to her that isn't good for her, or asking her if she wants to paint, colour, go to the park etc or saying she can have some later in the day but it doesn't work. She wants it there and then. The 'thinking step' doesn't seem to work either.
I'm not going to lie, sometimes I see other people's Instagram's or YouTube videos of their kids watching the iPad first thing in the morning. again when they're out for lunch and then in the evenings and I question wether I'm being too strict with her. 'Is it really that bad?' is a question I ask myself constantly.
I recently came across this article and it just reiterated my fears that it is bad for her and maybe I'm being cruel to be kind in the long run. The results from the My Voucher Codes survey show that 75 per cent of children use them for between two and four hours a day and I was totally shocked! Sienna probably has 4 hours a week at most!
It also said that 50% of parents didn't restrict the amount of time they had the phone or tablet either.. I definitely do with Sienna. I feel the article is talking about older kids but my fear is Sienna will become one of those statistics if she keeps wanting it more and more and I eventually give in.
I'm going to try and balance it a bit more.. if she's been at playgroup or we've been out most of the day and she asks for half an hour because she's tired and wants some quiet time, I think that's ok but I don't want her having it just because she's 'bored'.. I'd rather dig out a game or puzzle to do!
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*This post is in collaboration with My Voucher Codes but all thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.
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