Smart Strategies To Avoid Kid’s Excessive Screen Time During Coronavirus Lockdown

The coronavirus pandemic is making us fearful. Seeing the increasing numbers of COVID-19 infected people across the globe the governments have started taking strict actions.

Mass gatherings are restricted, schools and workplaces are shut down. Many countries have announced total lockdowns and curfews.

In this scenario, parents are busy working from home and kids are free for the whole day. Also, the lockdown increases a parent’s concern about their kid’s excessive device usage.

It has always been difficult for parents to curtail their kids’ screen time and now with the lockdown, it is even more challenging to tame their digital habits.

Let’s have a look at the parents’ struggles during this Coronavirus lockdown situation.

Lockdown Challenges For Parents

The lockdown is a complicated situation for every parent. Parents know how important it is to balance screen time and outdoor activities for their kid’s healthy growth but going outside is a terrible idea in this situation. So, staying home is the only option we are left with.

Here are a few challenges parents may face during the lockdown phase.

Dealing With The Kid’s Fear And Anxieties

Kids are already aware of the rapid spread of COVID-19 disease. They are scared and anxious as their routines, school, activities have stopped abruptly due to this deadly disease.

Kids are now forced to stay at home, not playing games with their friends, avoiding cycling, outdoor sports and just being isolated from their parents. This situation can make kids irritated and they may act disturbed and distressed.

You should discuss the Coronavirus disease with your kids and let them know the reality of the world. Make them understand how important it is to stay at home and emotionally prepare them for quarantine.

Balancing Work and Household Chores

Bringing your laptop at the breakfast table, having a conference call on the couch and preparing excel sheets while cleaning is not an easy task.

This is a real challenge for all working parents. Juggling between the work-life and family life demands constant management. What about kid’s playtime and your ‘Me-Time?’ 

Stay-at-home moms can easily handle her family at this time but a house wherein both the parents are working faces constant struggle during working hours.

Striving To Follow The Routine

Following a routine is perhaps the easiest way to establish discipline and management in the house during the coronavirus isolation time.

Do you think it is that easy? Since the schools are shut down, no child will wake up, eat or read as per his everyday schedule. And parents are busy working day and night as per the need of the hour. Meeting deadlines, keeping track of corona updates, cleaning, cooking, handling regular chores and entertaining kids – do you think you are a multitasker and can follow the daily routine? It is not as easy as it sounds.

Keeping Your Kids Engaged 

The biggest challenge of every parent at this time of Corona Virus Quarantine is keeping their kids occupied. Since kids are free for the entire day they get bored and they will not even let you get ready for the skype calls or to prepare excel sheets.

Also, it is difficult to keep them engaged because you are not free to be part of their activities. It is hard for you to think of safe ways to keep the kids engaged while you are busy at work.

Limiting Kids Screen Time

Many parents are worried about kids’ gadget usage during their working hours. School closures are fun for children but a big concern for working parents. Parents can neither hire a babysitter at this time nor limit their kids’ gadget usage. As a parent, it has become tougher to supervise the kids and keep them engaged.

It is very difficult to make sure that kids do not exceed the safe screen use limits during these days. Screen time control can save kids from the following damage.

• Poor eye vision
• Increased chances of Obesity
• Insomnia and interrupted sleeping patterns
• Mental and Physical Complications
• Habit-forming behavior
• Sedentary lifestyle

Parenting Tips To Ease Up The Lockdown Effects

Talk To Your Kids

Discuss with your kids about the Corona virus outbreak and its impacts. Validate their feelings and make them focus on how this isolation phase can be the family bonding time.

Assign duties to everyone and share responsibilities of chores. Instead of getting anxious in quarantine, be grateful that you are safe with your family and educate the same to your child.

Maintain Good Hygiene

Replace the fear of COVID-19 with healthy-hygienic habits. Educate your kids to follow the 20-second hand wash rule, use sanitizer, inculcate the habit to avoid touching the face frequently.

Additionally, this is the right time to educate your kids about food and nutrition. Make them eat home-made healthy food that can improve their immunity power and sharpen their memory.

Turn Your Routine Into A Fun Game

While parents strive to balance between the routine and work-life, they can turn the boring routine into a fun game that kids may love to play. Games like hide-n-clap are the best when enjoyed with kids.

Share chores and responsibilities amongst family members, including kids. Use perks to encourage quality work and also exercise punishments for not finishing the task. You can watch their animation movies with them or announce a dancing competition to keep them engaged.

Use Screen Time Control Measures

Lockdown has increased overall device users worldwide. Not only parents but kids are also spending excessive hours on various gadgets. Use effective measures to stop this habit.

Engage your kids in creative activities, encourage them to pursue their hobbies. Promote art and craft, DIY projects, dancing and many more. Instead of sports play family games. Make them play games or dance with you and in this you can easily reduce their screen time.

Bit Guardian Parental Control – Unique Parental Control App for Android

Parents should take the help of technology to calm down kid’s screen obsession. Bit Guardian Parental Control is the most reliable screen time control app. By downloading this app you can focus on your work life and at the same time take care of your kid’s screen life.

A perfect way to safeguard your Digital Kids

• Screen Time Control Features 
• Location Tracking And Geo-Fencing
• App Block And App Install Block
• Panic Alert and SOS Button
• Anti-Theft Feature

Let’s see Bit Guardian’s screen time features one by one.

Set Screen Time Limit

• In their free time kids explore multiple platforms for various purposes and spend extensive hours on their favorite apps.
• With the Time Schedule feature, parents can employ screen time control for different app categories such as social media, games, media and many more.
• Use the bedtime feature and only the SOS button will work on a kid’s device. A child’s addiction to play games and binge-watch videos even late at night will never hamper his sleep now onwards.

Prevent All The In-appropriate Apps

• The digital world is full of adult content. Many apps spread soft porn and in-decent content. You are busy with your work all day long and there is nothing that can engage a child’s curiosity. There are chances that your kid may download any inappropriate app out of his curiosity.
• With the App Block feature parents can get access to the list of apps his child is using on his device and can block all indecent apps.

Set App Time Limit

• Does your kid stay hooked to his handheld device all day long? Are you tired of telling the adverse consequences of excessive usage of social media apps to your kids? If he still doesn’t listen to you this is high time to use the App Time Limit feature.
• Put an end to extra hours of app usage by assigning fix hours to use particular apps.

Use App Install Block

• Kids may outsmart your decision and can download new addictive apps from the Google Play store.
• Use App Install Block to restrict kids from downloading any new apps.

Use Kiosk Mode

• At times children may use games and several applications that may result in addictive habits.
• How about making your kid’s device home screen bespoke?
• This feature allows parents to provide only a handful of applications in kid’s devices. You can utilize a kid’s spare time in other engaging activities.

So, to sum it up, turn this isolation time into family bonding time by ensuring kid’s healthy device usage habits with parental control apps. You can also balance your work life and take care of your kids with such technology.