WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME AND MY PHONE?
This “mini post“ is based on the article you will find here.
SUMMARY
- Basic Idea: screen time is generally harmful to children.
- There are 3 well known tenets to basic mental health hygiene
- Good diet
- Exercise
- Sleep
- Limiting screen time can be considered a 4th tenet
- Screen time disrupts the body’s natural production of melatonin (a chemical in the brain that influences our sleep cycles)
- Social media and gaming have some of the same effects on our bodies as trauma and cocaine use.
- Screen time takes away from “green time” and physical exercise and positive socialization
- Screen times overloads our sensory and executive functioning system, leading to a decreased ability to self soothe and calm down.
COMMENTARY
As a therapist, I am well aware of the mounting evidence suggesting that screen time tends to be “harmful“ for all of us, especially children.
As a father with a family, I am also aware of the very strong urge to use screen time as a babysitter.
In this post, I mainly want to encourage you, me, and all of us to do our very best to stick to the course of excellence in parenthood by finding other methods to manage our children’s time. I know this is not easy and sometimes really does seem impossible. We will all have amazing successes and horrible failures on this path.
REMEMBER
- Forgive yourself
- Get up and dust yourself off
- Never quit trying
- Remember that like any addiction, when you stop it things may get worse, but when your kids can really get screen time out of their system, they may become easier to manage and even be helpful too.
- Celebrate your successes with wild abandon
to begin your journey towards your best Self!
