Kids, Screen Time, and Circle with Disney

Technology has made being a parent in the 21st century is a lot different than it was when my parents raised me. There are soooo many distractions for our kids, and it’s kind of stressful! No matter how hard we try, there is no way we’re ever going to be able to avoid the technology wave that is hitting our kids, so handling technology with my family has started to become a game of balance. How much screen time, what kind of screen time, when they get screen time, all that good stuff.

When Rowen was a toddler, we had a pretty freaky experience with him and technology. I’ll start by saying that Rowen was not the worlds easiest toddler… not even close! I love that boy so much, but he was such a hard toddler! I had a really tough time with him, especially with him being my first, and I found myself handing him the iPad as his tantrums just started wearing on me. It was like a mom break, you know? But I started giving it to him too much, and after a while I noticed that he was acting out and throwing fits because he wanted to get the iPad. I started doing some research and realized that screen time actually affects your brain like a drug, and he was legitimately addicted to it. That terrified me! We tried to take the iPad away cold turkey and quickly realized that that was not the solution for us, it just wasn’t working. We started setting a timer and slowly weaning him to smaller and smaller amounts of screen time that were manageable. I wish that we had known about Circle with Disney back then, because it would have been the perfect solution to our problem.

TRACKING SCREEN TIME WITH CIRCLE WITH DISNEY

If you haven’t already tried it, Circle with Disney is so awesome! It’s a little white box that connects to your wifi in your house and I really like it because it’s all about balance.

Cool things you can do with Circle with Disney

Set daily time limits on apps and the internet
Set individual filters for each connected device
Determine which apps and sites each device can access
Pause all internet use for one or all users connected at any time
Set an internet “bedtime”
See everywhere your kids are spending time by online category and app
Control all of this from an app on your phone

Circle with Disney really is the perfect tool for our family. When our kids get older, we’ll even be able to add their friends to our circle so we can monitor screen time they spend with friends. And perfect timing for summer, right!? These kids might not be the happiest about our screen time limits, but that means it’s working right?! haha