Right now I currently only watch on 11 yr old after school and summers/school breaks (she's been with me since she was 15 months old, so she's like my own). Our daily routine after she gets off the bus is settle in/put things away, eat snack (sometimes I let her help make snack, like muffins for example), then I have a time set aside for her to do her homework and if she doesn't have homework I have 30 minutes of another beneficial activity that she has to do before any tablet time (she wants to play on her tablet the whole time). One day I'll have her do 30 minutes of reading a book of her choice, another day it might be drawing/coloring (she likes this but still complains because she wants on her tablet), or doing something creative (art, craft, building something, etc). On the days she reads she complains, tries to argue, wastes time getting started, gets an attitude with me etc. I feel like reading is very important for kids and I know she doesn't read while at home. But she gives me SUCH a hard time about it and has been complaining to her mom about it who sympathizes with her I'm thinking (but who knows what the girl is telling her mom. She's known to really stretch the truth, although her mom doesn't seem to realize it). Would you continue to enforce a 30 minute reading time, on reading days, before allowing tablet time when she has no homework (she does it at school last period), or would you let it go knowing her parents don't care if she reads or not? I limit screen time for my own young kids (ages 2 1/2 and 19 months) as well so it goes against my teacher heart to allow so much tablet time and no reading time but I don't want her parents to pull her out either. I've been her caregiver for SO long now. I don't know that they would pull her out over this, but she seemed to go through providers quickly (Due to her constant complaints) during the time I was not living near enough to watch her myself. Im okay with a few minutes of tablet use and I have been giving her 30-45 minutes on it at the end of the day before her mom picks her up. I've mentioned the tablet use to her mom and she doesn't want her to be on it the whole time either, but I don't think she realizes the reading and other activities are so she has something beneficial to do before getting on her tablet. It would be hard to talk to her mom about it because I don't know exactly what the girl is saying or what her mom is thinking since she hasnt mentioned anything to me about it.
I hope I made sense of this 😆

Reply

Welcome to the forum. Consider registering.

Reply

With all the fuss I would start limiting the tablet use to Fridays only. If the fuss continued, there would be no tablet use at all.

Reply

I'm actually a member but haven't been on in so long I can't remember my user name or password lol. I was preschool/daycare teacher. But that's been 3 yrs or more because I got out of childcare and had my own kids and we had moved across country, then moved back last summer.

Reply

I would approach this as an ongoing conversation with parent(s) Something along the lines of. . .
1st day: talk with the parents about what her after school schedule looks like. Give them an informative article written by an educational expert about WHY it's important to limit screen time. ("hey, I found an interesting article! let me know what you think")
2nd day: "Did you get a chance to read article?" if so, "what did you think?" discuss and bring it back to why their daughter's after school schedule flows the way it does - stress that you are willing to be the "meanie" because you care about her and you are willing to suffer her whining for her own good! However, you must have the parent's support

If parents pull daughter because she's unhappy with the limit on screen time - then they're going to be creating a very poor dynamic when entering the teen years! Daughter pouts, parents comply

Reply

If you could send me the email address you used when signing up I could retrieve it for you. Send it to michael@ccin.com

Reply

Is she picking the book? What is she into? Mabey its more that she needs the right book. Hey! I got it! try a book on tablet tricks or tricks for a game on the tablet she likes. Anything to get her reading.

Reply

Yep, the book is up to her. All summer she fought it too, but she knew every day that we would have 30 minutes of reading. Yet she still wouldn't bring a book to read, so Id get out a whole big stack of books I read when I was her age and tell her she could pick what she wanted to read since she didn't bring her own book. She complained so hard about not liking any of those books, but STILL wouldn't bring her own. And its the same since school started. She told me one day that she left the book on the bus, and the next day she left it at school. So I showed her the big pile of books she could choose from and she basically refused to read that day. Gave so much attitude about it that she lost her tablet time. But then the next day I got a text from her mom asking me to please let her have plenty of time to draw for a newsletter thing. She drew one picture and thought she was done and then when she got the tablet out I reminded her that it was reading time and she said, "But I don't have to read today!" Just then her dad arrived to pick her up, so I wasn't able to go any further with that conversation. But I'm wondering if her mom told her she wouldn't have to or something since she'd asked me to let her have plenty of time to draw.

Reply

I don't think I'd worry about what, if anything, the girl is saying to her mom. I'd talk with the mother anyway, explaining what the girl's schedule is at your home and why you've set it up that way. I'd ask for her thoughts and go from there. You may find that the mom appreciates what you're doing and is grateful for the fact that you're willing to stand up to the girl's complaints instead of her having to listen to them.

Reply