Same Words book
Every Screen
Asking for screens, turning them off, content, routines and adult devices.
View the book on Amazon ↗45 prepared situations
They ask for screens all dayEvery Screen · Getting screen timeThey start asking early and keep checking throughout the day.→The rule changes between daysEvery Screen · Getting screen timeDifferent days or different adults produce different answers.→You allowed one moreEvery Screen · Turning it offThe announced ending moved after the child pushed back.→They crash after it goes offEvery Screen · Turning it offThe screen ends and the next part of the day falls apart.→You need the screen to get through the dayEvery Screen · When it’s more than a phaseThe problem may be adult exhaustion rather than one screen-time rule.→You hand it over so you can cook dinnerEvery Screen · Getting screen timeThis is the most common use of a screen in a house with a small child, and it is not the one that gets written about.→You hand it over because they are already falling apartEvery Screen · Getting screen timeA screen stops a meltdown faster than anything else you own.→Saying what the end is before it startsEvery Screen · Getting screen timeAlmost everything that goes wrong at the end of a screen was decided at the beginning.→"Five more minutes" said to someone who cannot read a clockEvery Screen · Turning it offFive minutes is not a quantity to a three-year-old.→Ending on the end of something, not in the middle of itEvery Screen · Turning it offAttention to a screen is not steady.→The video that starts by itself, so there is no endEvery Screen · Turning it offSome of what your child watches is built so that it does not stop.→They refuse to hand the screen backEvery Screen · Turning it offThere is a difference between a screen being taken and a screen being given back, and small children feel it exactly.→The show is fast, loud, and overstimulatingEvery Screen · What is on itA show that keeps a three-year-old completely still looks like it is working.→The same episode for the fortieth timeEvery Screen · What is on itIt drives adults slowly mad and it is the most sensible thing your child does with a screen.→They can do it on the screen and not at the tableEvery Screen · What is on itThey sort every shape correctly on the screen and then cannot do it with the actual blocks in front of them.→They only want apps that react when tappedEvery Screen · What is on itThere is a real difference between a screen a child watches and a screen that answers them.→What a three-year-old actually understoodEvery Screen · What is on itA child can watch a whole story attentively and come away with something quite unlike the story.→Something frightening was on, and now it is bedtimeEvery Screen · What is on itSomething came on that you would not have chosen, they seemed fine at the time, and now at eight o'clock it is the only thing in the room.→The call with grandma, and why it is not a showEvery Screen · When the screen is the toolA live call is a different thing from a recorded one, and the difference is not sentimental.→The waiting room, and the shot that comes afterEvery Screen · When the screen is the toolDistraction reduces what a child goes through during a medical procedure, and a screen is the most reliable form of it you can carry.→Four hours in a seatEvery Screen · When the screen is the toolA small child strapped in for four hours is being asked for something that has nothing to do with willingness.→It stopped working as a rewardEvery Screen · When the screen is the toolIt worked for a fortnight.→Coming back out of it at the other endEvery Screen · When the screen is the toolThe useful screen ends in the worst possible place: a clinic corridor, a baggage hall, a car park in the rain.→They said something and you were mid-messageEvery Screen · Your screenYou heard the words and you answered with a sound rather than a reply.→The phone at the playgroundEvery Screen · Your screenThe playground is the honest test, because there is nothing else to do there and twenty minutes is a long time.→You keep getting interrupted by your phoneEvery Screen · Your screenParents count hours because hours are countable.→The television nobody is watchingEvery Screen · Your screenIt is on for company while everyone gets on with something else.→Filming them instead of being with themEvery Screen · Your screenThe moments worth recording are exactly the moments worth being in, which is the whole difficulty.→You need ten minutes on it and they will not let youEvery Screen · Your screenYou are allowed to use it.→Grandparents allowed screens all afternoonEvery Screen · Other people’s screensAt her house it runs all afternoon and nobody counts.→Daycare put on something you would not haveEvery Screen · Other people’s screensThey came home talking about something you have never heard of, and it turns out a screen goes on some afternoons.→An older child's screen, watched by a three-year-oldEvery Screen · Other people’s screensThe seven-year-old is watching something made for a seven-year-old and your three-year-old is in the room.→The party where everyone has one and yours does notEvery Screen · Other people’s screensFour children in a row with something in their hands and yours standing at the end of it.→Finding out what they saw without interrogating themEvery Screen · Other people’s screensYou want to know what was on at the other house and the obvious way to ask is the one that works worst.→"I'm bored" four minutes after it goes offEvery Screen · What it does to the dayThe room is slower than what was just in front of them.→Play got shorter and thinnerEvery Screen · What it does to the dayNot a bad afternoon, but a change over months.→Less talking and conversation throughout the dayEvery Screen · What it does to the dayAn hour of watching is not an hour of harm.→Where it sits relative to bedtimeEvery Screen · What it does to the dayThe same amount of watching costs you a different evening depending on where you put it.→Eating in front of itEvery Screen · What it does to the dayIt works.→A day with none, and what it actually costs youEvery Screen · What it does to the dayA day without any is worth doing occasionally and it is not free.→Nothing else holds them any moreEvery Screen · When it’s more than a phaseMost children ask for a screen constantly and then get on with something else when the answer is no.→Language is behind, and the screen is on a lotEvery Screen · When it’s more than a phaseThese two things are found together often, and what that means is not settled.→The reaction to this ending is not like other endingsEvery Screen · When it’s more than a phaseEvery child protests when a screen goes off.→Sleep has not come back after you changed the eveningEvery Screen · When it’s more than a phaseYou moved the slot earlier, you left a gap before the routine and you kept the steps the same.→They will not eat without itEvery Screen · When it’s more than a phaseYou took the screen off the table and they stopped eating.→