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Comment by pavel_lishin | Hacker News Reader

Throwing an anecdote into the bucket: my 2.5 year old gets _very_ cranky when it's time to turn off Masha and the Bear, and it seems to be - without running any objective numbers - that she's crankier in general and less willing to be patient and wait if she watches too much of it on any given day or weekend.

We actually told her that Masha went on vacation, and are going to be trying to crank down her screen time down to near-zero (from a few hours on the weekends, and occasionally 45 minutes after daycare if only one parent is home and e.g. dinner needs to be cooked)

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>daycare

Is the daycare cooperating with your desire for near-zero screen time?

Yup; I know they've shown them a few Youtube videos, mostly a few funny songs. I'm fine with that; she's very happy to try and sing along, and they don't just plop them down in front of a TV for hours at a time.

My gf worked at a day-care, said the number of daycare workers who spend more time on the phone than with the kids is staggering.

2.5? Few hours on weekends? 45 minutes after daycare? I think that is too much.

What did parents do before that when they need to cook dinner?

> What did parents do before that when they need to cook dinner?

I know this is kind of a rhetorical question, but:

- they'd prepare dinner ahead of time

- the other parent would watch the kids

- they'd have extended family watch the kids

- they'd have neighbors watch the kids

- they'd park the kid in the kitchen

- they'd hope that the kid didn't do anything too destructive in the other room

Don't forget:

- toss them outside and task them with entertaining themselves until dinner is done

You can't do that anymore with other parents calling the cops if they see a child outside unattended for longer than 30 seconds but it was effective

This was done much more so than any others.

We bordered on a large plot of forest. So we'd pay attention if it was hunting season (wear orange/yellow if it was), and go traipsing through the forest. We would routinely be gone for hours. Some times, we'd go from sunrise to sunset.

We'd also build a tiny fire, and have cookouts. One of us had a rifle, so we'd go for small game. First time I had squirrel was doing that. We put out the fires like they told us to do in cub scouts.

(Tl;Dr. Kids with guns, fire, basic camping gear, out for hours)

There's no way in hell anything remotely like this would be "allowed" today.

I didn't forget, but this is not a viable option before a certain age. I can't throw my 2 year old into the city sidewalk.

It was partially a rhetorical question as I do not have too much experience in it.

But yes it was critical asked. Im a software engineer but with quite a negative view on mobile phones.

I close my lit or put my phone away at conferences and try to focus. Still so many people around me doing everything but concentrating on the topic is strange.

If our generation is already like this, how will be a generation growing up without?

Prop the kid in front of the TV.

You also had - well, have - the option to just drop the kid in a high-chair or a playpen with a couple of distracting objects in the corner of the room. Sometimes the kid gets unhappy about being in a playpen with nothing to do and just screams for an hour while you prepare dinner.

Then you either have the option of stopping to sooth the baby or power through, and everyone wonders why either dinner is late/burnt or why you're in such a foul mood after listening to a screaming infant for an hour.

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