The real challenge at Christmas is the juggling act involved with keeping everyone – big kids, small kids AND grown ups – happy, while avoiding conflict and cross frowns at all costs.
It’s a day of high expectations from all parties. The parent would prefer the day to resemble his/her childhood Christmas. And the kids have their own ideas. Ideas which can quite often involve a device of some sort. Especially if they just unwrapped a new shiny one from under the tree. And this is when problems occur.
Attempt to switch their devices off mid game/selfie, and the festive period is less ‘ho ho ho’ and more, ‘Blue Christmas‘
Thankfully our app is pretty good at putting a stop to such conflicts.
There are lots of other ways to use the Screen Time features to your advantage on Christmas Day too. Below we’ve highlighted classic Christmas day occurrences and how to handle them cleverly with our app:
Presents!
Screen Time feature: Daily Time Limit
Present unwrapping is easy screen-free time. Unless unwrapping…something with a screen. Will this be your child? Solution: get Screen Time uploaded onto their device before you wrap it for full festive control from day one. Set a Daily Time Limit of your choosing and their apps will stop working once they have reached their daily allowance. Don’t let their big day pass in a device bubble! 😀
Food Preparation
Screen Time feature: Awarding Bonus Time
Gone are the days when parents do all the work. Offer the kids bonus time on their device for helping in the kitchen. You’ll sneak in a spot of extra bonding time with them while you’re at it. One potato peeled = 2 minutes bonus time. 1 carrot chopped = 2 minutes bonus time. One glass of Eggnog poured for mommy = 10 minutes of bonus time 😉
Begrudging call to a family member
Screen Time feature: Task List
This is a controversial one that raises the ethical dilemma: should we bribe our children to make contact with our loved ones to wish them a merry Christmas? If your child will happily lift the phone to make that call to Granny on Christmas day, then good work! Or, if like many of us, your darling child would rather play with their new toys than thank the kind soul who sent them, simply add the call to their task list and reward with your preferred amount of bonus time. Is this bribery? Yes. We think sometimes that’s ok. Happy child, happy Granny, happy Christmas 🙂 Failing that, suggest to child in question that they FaceTime Granny from their shiny new device.
The Feast
Screen Time Feature: Instant Pause
This part of the day is all about the food, the crackers, the bad jokes, the reminiscing about past family Christmases, the occasional massively inappropriate comment made by older generations etc. For many, this gathering happens once a year at best. If you want everyone to be 100% present, use the Pause feature on your kids devices for their full attention.
The Games
Screen Time feature: Schedules
Schedules is a brand new feature of ours! Select times of day that you would like your child’s apps to simply…stop. Before you wrap their device, why not install Screen Time and set up a ‘Family Games’ time. So when it’s time for that annual game of charades to begin, their device will automatically stop working for the length of time that you chose during setup. Let Screen Time be the bad guy! Who knows, they might have so much fun they forget to switch their device back on before the day is done.
Bedtime
Screen Time feature: Bedtime Blocker
Grown ups snoring on the sofa; the closing credits of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ are blasting out of the TV – this can mean only one thing: Christmas Day is complete. For the adults at least. The Bedtime Blocker is there to ensure kids can’t use their devices at that crucial time of day when they should be winding down and screen free. Seeing as it’s Christmas though, why not change the kids Bedtime Blocker on their device to a bit later than normal? Chances are they’ve earned it.
Merry Christmas from all at Screen Time! 🎅🏽
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