Vishesh Nagpal

of my kids and screens

Of course I’m not giving my (now 4 year old) his personal smartphone till he is 16

Watching Adolescence so firmly established that for us

But we did give him an iPad when he wasn’t even 3 .. the reason was - we lived in a joint family with 4 TV’s and 5 mobile phones - he was the first kid in the hood and we did not know exposing him to YouTube early to soothe his crying would create a kind of compulsion for him to have to have to have his quota of cartoons — hence I felt if he were to have his own device it is possible to monitor the his screen time else he will wander around each room getting his fix and it’ll be beyond our limits, and it truly was like that.

So by having one screen as his, aligning all member of the family to not allow him watch their TV or phones (only exception was when watching something together with him) we have been able to define + monitor his screen time.

He also enjoys playing & learning on iPad

and a few other apps

I have put a setting on his iPad screen time such that he can only watch YT kids, Netflix and Apple TV for 20-30 minutes each and within 10AM to 4PM. If I were to do it again- I’ll only allow Apple TV (it has the best curation and age appropriate).

Rest of the time if he wants can dabble with other apps

I don’t know if we are doing fully right or totally wrong. It was always clear to me that zero exposure to screen/ games/ entertainment is extreme. As is the philosophy of a sovereign child, at least at this age.

We have moved to Bali where he likes to be outside a lot - in contrast to back in Ludhiana. This automatically decreases his want to be in front of the screen and very much reduces my fears about his eye sight getting affected from watching screen too closely.

Our second kid is on the way and I think reflecting on what we can do differently this time is valuable.

I will keep this page updated with what is the current app stack of our kids and associated boundaries.

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