Recently I attended the Activision Games for Girls Summit and a topic several of the moms were discussing was in regards to whether or not to limit your child’s screen time.
In our house, screen time is defined by any electronics for our kids. These can include: TV, computer, iPod, Wii, xBox 360 or iPad.
Personally in our family, we have a liberal policy. A few rules we try (hey, we aren’t perfect) to enforce are:
There have been times where we have thrown are hands in the air, like many parents as to how to control technology with our kids.

Recently, I was introduced to the idea of technology tickets. These are tickets that are given to your child at the beginning of the week. A set number is given to each child and each ticket represents an allotted amount of time with technology.
Mom and Dad can have extra technology tickets to hand out as rewards.
Once a technology ticket is used, that’s it for that ticket until the next week.
Of course rules would need to be put in place per household, such as no using after 7 or only using up to 3 tickets in a row. Depending on each child and each parent a variety of rules could be set.
I love this idea – especially for parents looking for a solution to allowing kids screen time but without being overly strict.
Here are several blogs talking about using technology tickets, see how they do it!
Love this idea–we implemented it a couple of years ago, but using poker chips! Each was worth 5, 10 or 30 minutes of screen time depending upon the color. Neuroscientists agree visual stimuli like this before bed is not ideal for restful sleep, so we tried to stick with nothing an hour before bed. Kids also can earn time by reading–each minute of reading equates to additional minutes of screen time. The whole deal seemed to self-regulate. Never had crazy amounts of screen time going.
Saw the banner–I used to work at Nest Entertainment! Great products!
When I try to download, it says page not found. Could you direct me to the right link?
fixed! sorry about that – and has no idea Scribd started charging. WOMP!
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