{"id":399373,"date":"2026-03-23T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/399373\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:06:09","slug":"we-banned-television-and-screens-for-a-month-that-was-four-months-ago-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/399373\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We banned television and screens for a month … that was four months ago\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a long-time opponent of monarchy in all its forms, I was surprised to discover that it was the wise words of a princess that forced me to be a better parent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Catherine, the princess of Wales, co-wrote an essay a number of months ago in which she lamented the role of screens in creating an \u201cepidemic of disconnection\u201d between family<\/a> members. Writing alongside Prof Robert Waldinger from Harvard Medical School, she made the observation that family members might be \u201cphysically present but mentally absent\u201d.<\/p>\n

My immediate response to this was reactionary and defensive. I reposted her words on social media, commenting that this was a typically entitled view from a parent in her position<\/a>. I argued it was all very well to pontificate on screen time when you have an army of nannies at your disposal, but spare a thought for the rest of us who throw on the telly to get a moment\u2019s respite from the chaos.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until a few days later, when I tried to drag my three-year-old\u2019s attention away from a screen, that her words finally hit home. My daughter<\/a> was glued to Bluey, and as the egregious autoplay function on Netflix rolled over to a fourth episode of the enormously popular Australian animated series, I simply couldn\u2019t get her to hear me. I realised in that moment that screens could have a frighteningly deadening effect, nullifying my child into a stunned torpor. She was completely disconnected from her physical surroundings.<\/p>\n

I spoke to Wicklow-based Dr Rebecca Quin, a clinical psychologist, about this and she made it clear to me that children are particularly vulnerable to the allure of TV. \u201cIt combines fast-moving visuals, sound, and story that strongly activate children\u2019s attention and reward systems before self-regulation is fully developed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Surely this is why autoplay is so sinister when it comes to children\u2019s content? No three- or four-year-old is going to self-regulate when yet another episode of Peppa Pig rolls over without even asking it to. When I was a child, regulation was built into the television experience. Dempsey\u2019s Den was regularly interrupted by a commercial break. While we hated them at the time, ad breaks trump autoplay every time because they push a child\u2019s attention away from the screen and into the real world again. They offer respite.<\/p>\n

It was after that numbing experience with Bluey, and other similar episodes, that my wife and I decided to carry out an experiment.<\/p>\n

We introduced a ban on television and screens for a month.<\/p>\n

No more telly.<\/p>\n

Cold turkey. Nada. Faic. <\/p>\n

That was four months ago. And we\u2019re not turning back any time soon.<\/p>\n

Too often, the debate around screens and children revolves around how devious children become to take advantage of these devices. I would argue that the parents need to take much more of the blame. The Princess of Wales\u2019s essay, and my sad epiphany during an episode of Bluey, made me realise that the responsibility for all this lay with me. I reflected on my own parenting shortcomings and realised it wasn\u2019t always them who were reaching for the TV remote or the iPad, it was me.<\/p>\n

When things became chaotic, it was I who reached for the tranquillising effect of a screen, just to get them to be quiet for a few minutes. But it was never just \u201ca few minutes\u201d. <\/p>\n

I was the problem.<\/p>\n

So I had to consciously decide to make an extra effort to be a more creative parent. Screens are often used as a way to outsource parenting, a method of \u201ctaking care\u201d of a child\u2019s need for attention. This explained why I had become so defensive after the princess\u2019s comments. I took them personally, because they were true.<\/p>\n

I distinctly remember the first Saturday of the experiment. While my wife was having a well-deserved lie-in, the children dragged me downstairs at 6.30am, demanding we switch on the television. It was so tempting. But somehow I found the necessary resolve and the three of us ended up making a giant Brazilian flag out of crepe paper, to celebrate their mum\u2019s heritage. We laughed. There were tears of frustration. The colours weren\u2019t all in the right place. The scissors nearly took a finger off. But we got it done and we spent time connected with each other. Without Bluey. <\/p>\n

I never imagined I would become a parent who banned something I love so much. This isn\u2019t dogma and there must be room for improvisation and flexibility. TV isn\u2019t bad for kids in and of itself. <\/p>\n

\u201cScreens are not inherently harmful,\u201d says Quin. \u201cIt\u2019s our relationship with them and what they can sometimes replace that we need to be mindful of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SimonSimon and his children. <\/p>\n

We have tried to be as nuanced as we can with the ban. We don\u2019t want to bring up children who are illiterate when it comes to popular culture and what the latest TV show is. Quin describes TV programmes as a form of social currency, which allows kids to communicate and play with each other. <\/p>\n

One of the best things we have introduced during the ban is a movie night on Saturdays. I dusted off the old DVD player and hooked it up to a projector. I even got them to watch my own favourite childhood film: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. It was all going swimmingly until an animatronic spider ultimately gave them nightmares, meaning that particular DVD is now also banned. <\/p>\n

The beauty of analogue tech like DVDs is that there isn\u2019t a sniff of autoplay to wreak havoc on an evening\u2019s entertainment. There is a finite end in place. What is essential is that the movie night is a shared experience, with parents and children together. It\u2019s an event that we look forward to, rather than a passive and disposable encounter where nothing is being achieved other than distracting a child for a few minutes. <\/p>\n

\u201cFamily movie nights, discussed and shared, look very different psychologically from a child watching alone while adults are elsewhere,\u201d says Quin.<\/p>\n

While it certainly isn\u2019t always easy, the rewards from the ban on screens has been enormous. What I\u2019ve learned is that screen content fills the gaps which would otherwise be imbued by their own imaginative sense of play. When there\u2019s \u201cnothing to do\u201d they eventually find something, whether it\u2019s building a fort or setting up a hair salon in the bathroom. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a price to pay, though \u2026 the house is turned upside down every day. But that\u2019s all right.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s better than bringing up screen zombies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a long-time opponent of monarchy in all its forms, I was surprised to discover that it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,2973,11997,22617,9298,31919],"class_list":["post-399373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-parenting","tag-parents","tag-primary-level","tag-screen-time","tag-tech-tools"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116277464118179743","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}