What parent hasn’t been there? It’s been a long day, you still have dinner to make, maybe lunches for tomorrow too, and you just don’t have the energy to wrangle your kids into a new art project or plead with them to pick up a book.
Instead, you give in when they beg for more iPad time. Or maybe they promise they’ll do their homework after just a few more YouTube videos, and it’s easier to agree than have another argument. Now you’re not only exhausted, you feel like a bad parent too.
If this resonates with you, you’re not alone. Concern over how – and how much – their children are using media is a common source of parental guilt, which makes sense given the reputation of screen use as a frivolous waste of time, with no intrinsic value. So even if people are on their screens for a great reason – to relax, for example, or otherwisemanage their moods – they are inclined to feel guilty about it. And this guilt undermines any stress-reducing benefit they might have otherwise enjoyed.
