Comment by dsr_ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dsr_ | Hacker News Reader

My kids are older: 11 and 9. Here are the rules:

- Tablets can be used for reading at any time

- Schoolwork is a valid reason to use devices

- Music without videos is not "screen time".

- anything else is "screen time".

- Screen time does not exist on Monday through Thursday. (This was originally "from school end until all homework is done", but it turns out that their behavior is significantly worse when we allow that.)

- Screen time is never available after dinner, unless a parent is actively involved. (Drastically improves their ability to go to bed on time.)

- On weekends, one day is as much screen time as you want until dinner time. The other day may or may not have some screen time depending on behavior. If you find something better to do, you can't claim a refund.

There hasn't been a live TV feed in our house since before they were born; commercials are fascinating to them. I frequently have to tell them to put down a book while they do something else, because otherwise they will try to perform the task one-handed while reading.

So, they could use computer only on weekends. How your kid could become, for example, programmer?

Where would you be if you would be treated as that?

According to their rules, "screen time" is not equivalent to "using computer".

It seems like a reasonable way to limit unproductive, pure-entertainment computer use. A parent with some common sense should be able to identify what is productive.

Yup. If they want to program, that's different from watching other people play Minecraft on Youtube.

I also expect these rules to change along with the kids, not remain static. If we're successful, then by 16 or so I expect that the rules will be down to "Don't wake up sleeping people."

Ok, I'm glad you clarified that. It looked above as if programming would count as screen time. My parents never limited my computer access since we got a 286 when I was two, but I also never had youtube as a temptation. At age 11 I was spending every night working on my website, hanging out on freenode, and playing TFC. As long as my grades were good, my parents didn't impose any time limits or even bed time. I was expected to manage that myself.

I often wonder if those of us who first experienced computers in the 90s (And remember DOS->Win 3.1->95->98->XP) are the last generation for who a computer was a fascinating thing to learn, as now things seem to be moving to computers/tablets/smart phones merely being consumption and social sharing devices. There were several of us that learned HTML in elementary school for our angelfire pages. I can't understand the fascination people have now at watching other people play games on youtube/whatever that other site is. Oh well, C'est la vie.

Hey, that last sounds like me. I had books confiscated as a kid in english class because I read too much. This wasn't a big deal, because I always carried at least three, but looking back it's pretty funny.

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