In Defense of Screen Time (Well, Family Screen Time)

I’ve got an exciting announcement to make, and you’re the first to hear it: After months of intense scrutiny, Emily and I were just informed that we have won the highly sought-after “Strictest parents in the entire state of Oregon about screens” award. We didn’t really prepare a speech but we’d like to thank our parents and friends, and of course the academy who voted, i.e. our kids. What was the criteria for winning? Well, apparently having any sort of restrictions around tablets, video games, and youtube shorts. According to our kids, we’re the pinnacle of mean parents - depriving our poor children the glory of watching ‘stinky dance memes’ or whatever is cool on youtube right now - it’s truly unspeakable (see what I did there?) But the funny thing is, we’re actually SUPER lenient when it comes to a different type of screen time - just not the kind of “screen time” they so desperately want.

See, ever since our kids have been old enough to watch things that Em and I are also interested in (no cartoons for us) we’ve developed a kind of family tradition to cuddle up on the sofa and watch TV together. Almost nightly. And though it may sound like a terrible parenting move from the outside, for us, having a communal interest, something we can all talk about and enjoy together, has been surprisingly great for our family.

So this post is for anyone out there who might be feeling guilty about how much TV they watch with their kids during the week.