On cookies and screen time

Do your kids enjoy cartoons? Is there even such a phenomenon as a kid that does not like them? There are many studies and analysis done on what effect (too much) screen time can have on a child's development. I have read a few instances where children, that were overexposed to screentime as babies, were starting to manifest autistic symptoms, and may even be wrongly diagnosed with autism, that eventually retracted as the kid was put on a strict no screen rule. There is even a term for this:Virtual autism. I must note that there are benefits to using technology in children on the autistic spectrum who were properly diagnosed. One can find many educational and informative videos on the subject of brain development in young kids and screen time. The official recommendation is that parents should avoid screen time exposure all together before the age of 18 months..

That is very often not double, tho. I had an older child who watched cartoons, two times out of three, so the small kid would watch along and most parents watch tv or use it for soothing or attention diversion and that's just life today, you use what tools you have. Many times families are left to themselves and have no help from nannies or grandparents and they have to do stuff other than caring for babies 24/7 so a little tv comes in handy when you take a shower or make lunch or even sit for a coffee. We, as a family, struggle with screen time regulations for a solid five years now. And we made a lot of progress that included lots of self-examination and research and admitting we tend to screw up a lot. Like, really a lot.
We have these intervals where the kids watch more tv and then we have intervals when we are on the top of our parenting game. For instance, when I had a newborn I tend to let the older ones watch more cartoons. When I was sick or very busy, they watched more cartoons. When I struggle with down periods I tend to go out less, have less energy for my kids, and as a result, they watch more cartoons. It's not something I'm proud of, to be honest.

And with more screen time there come consequences. The kids get more cranky, they are more nervous, have more trouble falling asleep. They fight with each other, and with us, more and are far less likely to be cooperative. So we put limitations. We declared two days a week as screentime days. One is for Minecraft and the other is for cartoons and a family movie night. It does not go smoothly in the beginning. There is a protest, the inevitable ''I'm soooo boreeeeed'' cries and tv demanding tantrums. And that's expected and I'm ok with that. But if the rules are set clearly and firmly the protests stop after a few weeks and they begin to play more nicely with each other and are generally in a better mood and more cooperative. And if you add more fresh air time and more open, unstructured play outside the results are so positive and lovely and you find your self, wondering, why the hell you ever backed down from the plan and cave into the everyday screen time routine.

Another thing we try to do with screen time is to make it deliberate. We make it a learning experience. They do watch all kinds of cartoons, mainstream ones like Micky Mouse clubhouse or My little pony, but also great educational cartoons like The Octonauts or The Wild Kratts. They became fluid in English thanks to screen time. We also try to encourage them to watch documentaries on the topics that interested them like dinosaurs or birds and cooking shows like Nerdy Nummies. Lately, we encourage them to watch cartoons in German and Spanish. We have lots of family in Germany and some of them don't speak Croatian so German is something that could be very useful for them in practical everyday life. And our middle kid showed an interest in Spanish so we added that to the list. We watch Peter Rabit and Peppa on German (Peter Hase and Peppa Wutz) and Pocoyo and Peppa in Spanish. I find Pocoyo and Peppa to be best for learning a new language because they have smart dialog, diverse characters, puns, jokes and are simple and engaging. Peppa is great because they can watch the same episode of Peppa in Croatian and English and German and Spanish. I know it may seem a little crazy or overly ambitious to expect our kids to learn all of those languages but it is actually not as confusing for them as it may seem. The earlier they are in touch with different languages the easier it is for them to lear them. In the end, even if they don't become fluid in German or Spanish at least I'll have fewer guilt trips for the time they spend in front of the screen.
What I also wanted to share with you was this article about the art of ending struggles. It is not just about screentime but it helps when you want to make a smooth transfer from screen time to other things. It may seem trivial but this article really gave me perspective on why we often times had problems when turning the screen off.

So, in addition to them not having screen time (and that means youtube time because we don't have a tv) my husband and I also can't use the computer, so I don't work on it weekends when the kids are home. And we instead do something together: like having people over, because the kids love some company, or going somewhere on a road trip (we are trying to do this Sunday Funday thing and always go somewhere on Sundays when my husband doesn't work). My New Years Resolution #7 is definitely to connect more. My kids are so friendly and love having guests and friends over so I decided to put my anxiety aside, confront my discomfort, and go out. Go for coffees, call people over more and just generally to socialise more. So on Saturday, we had a little Steem meet up. We baked oatmeal cream pie cookies and called @dumar022 and @schkure and their families over. Both their kids are friends with ours so we hung out a little and talked about Steemit. Did I tell you our kid called us Steemit Parents?

We made cookies by this great recipe. And in the best manner of quick adjustment to unexpected plan changes, something all parents are experts at, we ran out of powdered sugar, that is in the recipe for the cream spread, so we used cocoa powder. I used 1/2 of a cup cocoa instead of a cup of powdered sugar and I should have used a bit less. I think 1/4 of a cup would have done it. I also didn't have pumpkin spice. I think we can't even buy it anywhere in Šibenik. But nevertheless, they were so good. I think we are definitely making them again sometime. If you are looking for some great recipes to bake or cook with your kids check @gringalicious out. She is amazing. You can also follow her on Facebook.

On our Sunday Funday, we took a trip to Murter. That's a small town on the Island of Murter that is at the start of the Kornati National Park. We went for a coffee with some friends, including @sanjalydia and a brand new Steemer from whom you should expect great things, @redrumtom. To give you an idea of how genius this man is, take a look at his project Plutons Productions.

And to finish with something related that I'm obsessed with, and to give you a soundtrack to my post, here's a song from My Little Pony. I actually play this even when my kids aren't around. A great movie for small children. Have you seen it? Great cast too! SIA even makes a pony cameo in it.