I follow and admire Mx Brandin’s work on Instagram so I was really happy to see this! I still feel some anxiety around giving my 2yo screentime because there’s an air of pervasive anxiety about it in parenting culture, but he loooves drawing on a screen and playing his little video games.
So happy to see you working with Patrick! I actually came across your work when I asked the community on the Crossplay Discord about setting boundaries. We’ve actually done just that, and after a few weeks of difficult days, it’s worked! My boys (almost 8) play games for 30 minutes on Wed, Fri, Sat, and Sun. To your point, they do start to look forward to it. “I wish today was Wednesday” -- but they recognize it’s not Wednesday and therefore they don’t ask to play. It’s great.
The other recommendation I’d have is to be a little ruthless if a game isn’t working for your kid. One of my kids wanted to play Geometry Dash but was on the verge of tears after one session. So we deleted it from the iPad and very soon it was out of sight, out of mind. Recently, their friends have been playing and they asked to download again, and this time they were ready to handle the difficulty and have been having a blast. Point being: it’s okay to help them take a break.
One of things I like about the Amazon Free Time subscription is that I can set "educational goals" that have to be met before the videos and games are available. Now that I have an 8 year old that LOVES to read, he has to do 30 minutes of reading/audiobooks first. It is also really nice that none of the games have micro-transactions so I don't hear "Mooooooommmmmmm I need money!!"
I follow and admire Mx Brandin’s work on Instagram so I was really happy to see this! I still feel some anxiety around giving my 2yo screentime because there’s an air of pervasive anxiety about it in parenting culture, but he loooves drawing on a screen and playing his little video games.
So happy to see you working with Patrick! I actually came across your work when I asked the community on the Crossplay Discord about setting boundaries. We’ve actually done just that, and after a few weeks of difficult days, it’s worked! My boys (almost 8) play games for 30 minutes on Wed, Fri, Sat, and Sun. To your point, they do start to look forward to it. “I wish today was Wednesday” -- but they recognize it’s not Wednesday and therefore they don’t ask to play. It’s great.
The other recommendation I’d have is to be a little ruthless if a game isn’t working for your kid. One of my kids wanted to play Geometry Dash but was on the verge of tears after one session. So we deleted it from the iPad and very soon it was out of sight, out of mind. Recently, their friends have been playing and they asked to download again, and this time they were ready to handle the difficulty and have been having a blast. Point being: it’s okay to help them take a break.
I can’t wait for more articles from you! :)
One of things I like about the Amazon Free Time subscription is that I can set "educational goals" that have to be met before the videos and games are available. Now that I have an 8 year old that LOVES to read, he has to do 30 minutes of reading/audiobooks first. It is also really nice that none of the games have micro-transactions so I don't hear "Mooooooommmmmmm I need money!!"