Our 4 year old (now 5) was depressed and anxious for months during lockdowns. Why wouldn't she be? People aren't meant to be cooped up together all day like that, and she needed space from us as much as we did from her. Space we couldn't really give her in our tiny home.
By the time she went back to school she'd been home, away from almost all other kids except her baby sister, for like 8 months. That's basically forever in 4-year-old time.
As to screentime, you don't know anything about those other "parents". If I let my daughter play educational games for 20 minutes so my wife and I can actually have a conversation over dinner, what's the problem with that?
I’m not sure why discussing facts wild count as finger wagging. I’ve patented and continue to parent a bunch of kids and understand how hard it is, although everyone’s experience is different.
The scientific literature is pretty settled that even “educational” games are counterproductive. [0] The American Academy of Pediatricians discourages all screentime, except for video chat, for kids under two years.
The problems with me, or you, giving a screen for twenty minutes is called out in the article I linked.
It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a negative contributor to many factors including obesity, anxiety, sleepnessless, violence.
It’s also funny that you assume I and others aren’t parents and can somehow know my situation.
I’m not criticizing you and I’m sure you and your wife deserve to have a conversation. I was just bringing up how the study should have looked at confounding variables like screen usage that could partially explain what’s going on.
[0] https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-healt...
This is just as meaningless.
...as your own screed above.
I have seen this line used often. However, from an anti-natalist perspective, actually raising children is a mistake. Therefore, no one should actually expected to actually raise children, and simply judging those who do without that firsthand experience is perfectly reasonable.
Even then, raising children is not what anti-natalism condemns. It's bringing children to life. It's not reasonable to condemn a care giver who didn't beget the child (and it's usually impossible to know whether they did).
I doubt that 'screen time' is a thing any more than 'page time' would have been a thing a century ago. I suspect it's an issue to do with mainstream schooling/parenting but I'm not sure what exactly. Maybe because computers aren't used much in schools? If you think about it many adults have 8 hours screen time per day, and what is education supposed to be if not preparation for life?
I've seen this too, but often from overworked single mom or people in a difficult financial situation. I think people already did this before by putting kids in front of the TV.
It’s hard being a parent and dealing with the stresses it brings. Although I think that I and most of my social circles are pretty well off and we plugged our kids in front of iPads.
Intuitively, this seems like a simple result of over screening because kids don’t behave like devices.
Every time I go to a family restaurant, I see a tiny kid (frequently too young to even speak) sitting with a phone or iPad watching and maybe swiping away. And usually I experience a tantrum when that kid has to break away from their screen to do something in the real world.
If young kids spend more time with youtube than friends, that’s going to result in lots of stuff.
Fun fact, if you ever bring up how screens are bad for little kids you will fight with parents.