‘You can tell what screens do to their little brains’
West Auckland mum-of-three Chelsea Mckay says at the start of the trial she was feeling daunted by her family’s screen habits being exposed.
“I’ve always said little to no screens during the week but weekends were just free range.
“They’d be knackered, I’d be knackered and there’s no structure to how we monitored their screen time and it did feel like it was getting out of control.”
The Mckay family wanted to take back the reins on the weekend, reducing screen time and spending more quality time together as a family.
When she and husband Dave broke the news to their kids that they would be taking part in the trial, they got a mixed response.
“My daughter who is the eldest was interested but my 6-year-old was like ‘nah’. His eyes went blank and I’d have to keep reminding him why. For my 4-year-old, it went over his head and he’d have big meltdowns every time I took his screen away.”
But after a month, the Mckays had noticed a shift in their children’s behaviour and the younger two were sleeping much better. They had no screen time an hour before bed.
“There’s still the occasional meltdown but it has been better and I think it will keep getting better over time.”
Mckay said her kids tried to cheat by rolling the ball across the lounge floor to clock more screen time but she cottoned on to that.
“You can tell as a parent what screens do to their little brains. After being on screens, they fight and are moody and it’s quite scary, it’s like they have a hangover. I thought, if this is how they act, what is it actually doing to their little brains and is it causing damage that we can’t take back?”