Have I been thinking of video games/screen time the wrong way?
I've battled myself on this for quite some time. Trying to be the mom we feel we should be, doing the things we should, yadda yadda... I've waged a war against screen time and video games. We're "natural" "minimalist" "organic", of course we need a screen free home and my kids should always choose to bird watch over Minecrafting. Right?
We have ditched cable and live off of Amazon, Netflix and Pureflix. The kids all have an Amazon Fire tablet with the Free Time subscription to give them age friendly games, videos and books. The oldest uses an iPad with apps that have been parent approved (and he really just plays Sims).
What if I stop stressing over the screen time? What if instead of being a freak over counting their minutes in front of a screen and being mean mom when they've gone past their time and don't want to turn the Xbox off -- what if I look at the big picture?
Our Home
We're not big tv watchers anymore. Honestly- the more time we spend in scripture the more we've realized what a waste it is to be so invested in meaningless anything-- ESPECIALLY tv. We rarely watch movies (and we used to consider ourselves quite the movie buffs) and my kids probably couldn't tell you much of anything about any of the recent 'hits'.
Things we do watch: Little House on the Prairie - the kids and I have watched the whole series before, but are going through it again. We watch an episode or two together in the morning as we really enjoy waking up slowly, and then one together as a family in the evening.
The Bible - Netflix has this tv series on there and we've watched it a least a billion times. Amazon has the continuation series (The Bible AD) that we had some scriptural issues with, but it's still pretty good!
That's it here lately- we did watch one movie (The Martian) which they enjoyed, and the kids have watched a few "normal" new 'kid' movies with friends, but nothing that they had much to say about after it was over.
I love movies and documentaries for school! It's such a great way to teach and spark their interest of many topics- history, science, famous people to learn from.
YouTube - we love this resource! I love encouraging them to search "how to's" and many of the educational topics on there. We love The Bible Project to look closer at the books of the Bible, and the kids use it for all their music! Especially since we can be seen in Matisyahu's newest music video from the first concert they got to go to. ;)
PureFlix - We subscribed to this recently and enjoy it! The kids now have access to this instead of Netflix to watch cartoons and such. We loved the Revelation Road series and some great documentaries too!
Xbox - this is the one. The greatest battle of them all. The kids are all Xbox'ers. Minecraft, Ark, and Star Wars are really the only games they play. They love Goat Simulator (which is really hilarious to watch) and the Lego games, but they don't play those as often.
I've had strict rules about only having 30 minutes each, only 1 hour and you all have to play together, no playing at all during the week, and there's always some level of issue with each.
What I Noticed
My kids won't choose to stay in front of a screen all day... contrary to my worst nightmares. Most often they're in the pool, riding bikes, playing their made up games with the couple toys they have (yep- we took their toys away a while back, update coming soon!), Lego building for hours and cruising around in the yard.
When they are on their tablets, the games they choose are actually pretty neat. And you really can see various skills building in each of them at their various ages/levels. They're not becoming rocket scientists, but just about every week we have some super kid doing an extraordinary task after practicing on his computer or something... I think it'll be ok.
When they are on the Xbox- they're working together, making the most creative games, laughing, building their friendships with one another, and really- I'm impressed. They play a game on Minecraft called "Build a Battle" where each kids builds something depending on the topic and then they pick the best. They chose houses as the topic the other day and asked their Dad and I to judge-- we were blown away! They thought, layout, design, features -- even of the 4 year old's house, were OUTSTANDING! Our son (oldest kiddo) made a home for the homeless with a beautiful modern design, outdoor cooking area, pools, gardens, fine art, plenty of beds and rooms. Melted my heart!
The Plan
I'm sure we'll adjust come the fall when we get back into the rhythm of school, but it's summer. And the best part about summer as kids-- is the freedom! Although I feel our kids have a super easy school 'schedule', summer is still, for us, a time to be free, wake up slow, stay up late, and nap in the shade on a hot day.
So I think I'm going to completely let go of the reigns. Stop the screen time worry and let them be.
Xbox, ok. We know what games they play and they don't get into any others. We try to pause before getting any game/tv show/movie and say "Can I glorify God with this activity?" if the answer is no-- we let it go. The games they play on Xbox, we feel ok with those.
TV, ok. As long as it's one of our family approved things, okie doke. Movie night... pizza in the living room? Let's go!
Tablets, ok. They'll go on in the morning at the wake up time, go off by the set bedtime, but as long as you have battery, you can play if you want.
We'll see how it goes, we'll see if our kids minds turn to mush and they become complete zombies this summer, or if they continue to do all the things they usually do even with my letting the freedom bell ring.
Worse comes to worse, they have a fabulous summer, I get parent shamed and come fall we have to put in some extra work to turn their brains back from soup. I can live with that.
