Why I Limit Screen Time While Traveling

You have things under control at home, you're balancing screen time with unstructured play and outside time. And then you go on a trip, and suddenly you're in survival mode and the tablet is out all. the. time. Let's talk about this.

Could you have different rules around screen time when at home vs traveling? Sure. Do you need to? No. Traveling is a time for both you and your children to explore a new environment, and be immersed in the world around you. Your child doesn’t necessarily need a movie on the plane or at a restaurant, it’s simply a crutch. I get it, you’re trying to eat at a restaurant and your child can’t sit longer for 10 minutes, or you just need to survive the painfully long wait in security at the airport. So you hand your child your phone, but then they become overstimulated, and it seems to make matters worse; you’re paying the consequences of the artificial dopamine hits and overstimulation (aka no nap on that flight).

Sleep is often a struggle when we're on different routines and sleeping in different places while traveling, I don't want to make matters even worse with screens. A meta-analysis of 20 different studies (Janssen et al, 2019) found that toddlers and preschoolers exposed to higher amounts of daily screen time took longer to fall asleep, went to bed later, awoke more frequently, and had lower sleep totals.

In Glow Kids, Nicholas Kardaras says “let them experience boredom; there is nothing healthier for a child then to learn how to use their own interior resources to work through the challenges of being bored. This then acts as the fertile ground for developing their powers of observation, cultivating patience and developing an active imagination- the most developmentally and neurosynaptically important skill that they can learn.”

So let your kids look out the window in the car. Let them play in the grass or jump in a puddle while you sit at a restaurant patio. Carry a few screen free activities with you. It may feel harder to parent this way in the moment, but I promise it's worth it. Instead of child who are hypnotized by screens, you'll have a child who talks to the servers, asks questions, and engages with the world around them.

A few more quotes from Glow Kids:

“Unfortunately, it seems that we, as a society, have entered into a Faustian deal. Yes, we have these amazing handheld marvels of the digital age - tablets and smartphones - miraculous glowing devices that connect people throughout the globe and can literally access the sum of all human knowledge in the palm of our hand. But what is the price of all this future tech? The psyche and soul of an entire generation. The sad truth is that for the oh-so-satisfying ease, comfort and titillation of these jewels of the modern age, we've unwittingly thrown an entire generation under the virtual bus.”

“Brain-imaging research is showing that glowing screens - like those of iPads - are as stimulating to the brain's pleasure centre and as able to increase levels of dopamine (the primary feel-good neurotransmitter) as much as sex does. This brain-orgasm effect is what makes screen so addictive for adults, but even more so for children with still-developing brains that just aren't equipped to handle that level of stimulation”

“The trap that many parents fall into is in believing that when their kids are hypnotically looking at a screen, they are demonstrating a profound ability to stay focused. after all, they maintain a laserlike attention on the screen, so how can there possibly be an attention problem?”

And now for the alternatives:

• The Yoto Player: other players are large but the Yoto Mini is so compact! Combine it with the cards of your choice + kid-safe headphones (they come in both wired and bluetooth options, but I prefer the wired version for less EMF exposure and lower price)

• water wow books

• reusable sticker books

• busy boards

• magnetic travel toys

• playdough (sounds messy, but I actually love playdough for plane rides)

I saw this hack where you use a hanging toiletries bag to organize everything and hang it from the tray table clip, so we will definitely be doing that for our flight to Vancouver. They come in fun, kid friendly designs, you could get your child involved in choosing and packing the bag to get them excited and create ownership. I notice that when he's not involved the packing experience, he's less likely to play with the toys I bring.

Here's your permission slip to parent confidently against the grain. To have the only child on the flight or at the restaurant without an ipad. You got this mama!