Unlocking Happiness: Simple Ways Parents Can Balance Screen Time for Kids' Emotional Well-Being

Unlocking happiness with Family-Focused Therapy: Exploring strategies to balance screen time for kids and nurture their emotional well-being.

Introduction:

The Digital Age has brought many opportunities to parents and children alike but has also brought several challenges. One of the biggest challenges is ensuring children get enough screen time and time away from screens to promote their emotional well-being. In this blog, we'll explore how parents can strike the right balance between screen time and kids' emotional health, outlining some practical strategies that parents can use to ensure their children are using technology in a healthy and balanced way.

The problems with screens:

Too much screen time and regular exposure to poor-quality programming have been linked to:

• Obesity

• Inadequate sleep schedules and insufficient sleep

• Behavior problems

• Delays in language and social skills development

• Violence

• Attention problems

• Less time learning

Remember that unstructured playtime is more valuable for a young child's developing brain than electronic media. Children younger than age 2 are likelier to learn when interacting and playing with parents, siblings, and other children and adults. By age 2, children may benefit from some types of screen time, such as programming with music, movement, and stories. By watching together, you can help your child understand what he or he is seeing and apply it in real life. However, passive screen time should differ from reading, playing, or problem-solving.

Nurturing bonds with Family-Focused Therapy: A mother and daughter connecting, exploring the right balance in screen time for emotional well-being.

Tips to consider while outlining the basic media balance guidelines for your kids:

1. Set Basic Ground Rules: Setting specific rules in place will help you with the digital monitoring of your children and will aid you and the kids in striking a balance for tech usage. Creating certain boundaries and elemental ground rules will help a lot. Create screen-free times and zones at home. Limit screen time in bedrooms, at dinner tables, during study time unless needed, during family time, etc., which can help in media balance. Ensure kids do not use cell phones during their bedtime and an hour before their bedtime. Another way to manage media operations is to have parental controls in place. 

2. Be Tech-Savvy: With new apps and technology coming out every day, children are curious to use them. Nevertheless, this ever-growing new tech may threaten their child's safety, data security, and privacy. To help them navigate safely and be tech-savvy, learn about the latest apps your kids want to try. Understand how they work, if they've ads and their policies on user data and security. For all parents who are constantly upset about their child's social media presence, make your accounts and learn the platforms. 

3. Encourage Screen-Free Activities: Children need to learn how to be okay with being offline. Encourage screen-free activities like oil painting, dancing, outdoor sports, reading, or anything that does not involve technology and help children develop a habit of enjoying that moment without turning on technology.

Capturing joyful moments with Family-Focused Therapy: Balancing screen time and fostering emotional well-being in the company of loved ones

Conclusion:

Striking the right balance between screen time and emotional well-being for children can be difficult, but it's necessary for their overall wellness and happiness. This article describes strategies parents can use to ensure that their kids have sufficient time away from screens to promote emotional well-being while still allowing them to participate in digital activities. With some planning and flexibility, parents can determine that perfect balance that allows their kids to enjoy the best of both worlds. If you have any questions or queries regarding how to limit your child's screen time, you can contact experienced counselors and therapists or the team from Project C Foundation. We will be glad to assist you.

Therapists/Counsellors from Project C Foundation:

— Bani Dhillon

Specialization: Inter-Personal Relationships, Marital Counselling, Personal Management, Stress Management, Personality Development, Effective Communication Skills, and Group Therapy.

— Sakshi Hiremath

Specialization: Anxiety Management, Stress Management, Depression, Panic Attacks, Self Confidence And Self Esteem Issues, Self Care And Self Love, Relationship Issues, Adolescent Mental Health.

Author: Larisa Alphonso Edited By: Sadaf Iqbal