7 commandments to regain control over screens

  1. You will be wary of the flow state.
  2. You will set rules regarding screen time.
  3. You will set rules regarding permitted content.
  4. As a parent, you will submit to the same rules.
  5. You will normalize “disturbing” and “I-don’t-know-what-to-do” children.
  6. You will promote autonomy and self-regulation.
  7. You will avoid the hard line.

Editorial by Dominique

We hear from several specialists that screens are harmful to our children. We are increasingly aware that we must educate our children so that they adopt responsible behavior when it comes to screen consumption. Phones, tablets, video consoles and televisions; screens have never been so present in our lives. Lucky are our parents who did not have to regulate the time we spend on screens! The statistics speak for themselves: children aged 2 to 4 spend an average of 2 hours 45 minutes per day on a screen, 4 to 8 year olds 3 hours per day, 8 to 12 year olds 4 hours 40 minutes and 13 to 18 year olds 6 hours 40 minutes. Moreover, we adults are not much better. Just like our children, we get caught up in the flow state, going about our business on our cell phones without seeing the time pass.

All experts agree that the most damaging thing for children is not the time spent on a screen, but rather the reduction in time spent experimenting, mobilizing their bodies, jumping, running, interacting with others and the world around them.

However, some habits have taken hold in our lives and nothing is more difficult than changing habits. In this special report, we want to support you in this change of habits by giving you tips and tricks to achieve this. First, you will have the chance to take a moment to reflect on your screen consumption. Second, you will find a whole program to radically cut out screens for a week. Finally, you will find a host of tips to resume screen consumption in moderation by adopting a new responsible approach. Regulating not only screen time, but also the content consumed by our children must become as natural as regulating our children's diet or our own alcohol consumption. As in the examples of diet or alcohol consumption, we must avoid excess and advocate balance. We will also have to relearn how to do without the "babysitting" screen and live with noisier and sometimes disturbing children. What we hope is that after going through this practical guide, your children can benefit from a stimulating family environment, that you find precious time and gain in productivity. Above all, we wish you to share quality time with your family and that all members really connect with each other.

Your practical guide

The key to changing our habits? Preparation! Check out our complete practical guide to learn all our tips and discover our tools to effectively manage screen consumption.

Want to always have all the lists and ideas in our practical guide at hand? Find them for free on our Octave app!

Download the practical guide

How to reduce screen time?

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    Lead by example

    The best way to instill healthy screen habits in children is to lead by example! Laurence Morency-Guay, our child development specialist, offers some strategies to establish good screen habits.

    Read the article
  •  

    Change your habits

    Convincing your family to regulate their time spent on screens and digital devices is no easy task. To help you through this process, check out our practical guide to discover our tips for making it easier to set up guidelines for screen use in your home.

    Consult the practical guide
  •  

    Regulate screen time

    Just because your kids have done everything on the Before Turning On a Screen tool doesn't mean it's all screen time afterward! Set a screen time limit for each child based on their age group. Here's a quick guide to help you.

    Download the guide

5@8 challenge without screens

What could be better than taking a break from screens to see the place they occupy in our lives? Taking this break as a family is an opportunity to see that screens steal precious time for human connections, educational opportunities that could support the development of our children's autonomy, time for housework or meal planning, or even time to undertake a sports activity. Our lives are already busy and we are short on time, these few hours a day spent on our screens are perhaps the ones we need to achieve balance.

Here is the complete program of the 5@8 Screen-Free Challenge. Every evening, for a week, we offer you an activity to do with your family to avoid turning on the screens. Ready to take up the challenge?

Challenge Programming

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    DAY 1

    Cook a quick recipe for tomorrow's lunches! Pasta salad, muffins, mini pizzas! Are you lacking inspiration?
    Here are some ideas!

    Discover the recipe
  •  

    DAY 2

    Moving is good for your health! Go for a walk or do a home workout. Stuck for ideas? Here are a few!

    Discover the suggestions
  •  

    DAY 3

    Reading is good for the mind.
    We offer several ways to read as a family right here!

    Discover the suggestions

  •  

    DAY 4

    Just fifteen minutes of tidying up can be beneficial! So here are some ideas for tasks you can accomplish in just a few minutes.

    Discover the suggestions
  •  

    DAY 5

    Children love to craft and draw; a blank sheet of paper and a few crayons are often enough to pass the time!

    DOWNLOAD THE ACTIVITY
  •  

    DAY 6

    A game of dice, a deck of cards or a board game, and that's it! We bet you won't be able to stop!

    DISCOVER THE GAME
  •  

    DAY 7

    Kids love playing hide and seek. With your help, they'll be able to find new, hard-to-find hiding places. Ready, set, here we go!

    DISCOVER THE VARIANTS

Putting screen-free time to good use

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    Optimize your storage

    Housework never takes a break, you know that, so why not take advantage of your screen-free time to do some tidying activities in less than 15 minutes? They are easy to slip in between two other tasks or activities and they free your mind from the long tidying list hiding in your organization binder! Our collaborator Mlle Range-Tout has therefore prepared a list of 20 tidying and decluttering activities to do in less than 15 minutes!

    download the list
  •  

    Practice Mindfulness

    Let's face it, we too, as adults, could benefit from less screen time. Fatigue, blue light, distractions, interruptions, posture, obsession (with notifications), even compulsion (to refresh news feeds we've just looked at): what if we left our phones at the bottom of our bags for a few hours in favor of more inspiring activities? Our brains, our bodies... and our children will thank us!

    view the article
  •  

    Move every day

    Do you feel like physical activities are hard to plan for the week because they take a long time to organize and often require equipment or travel? Well, the Bougeotte et Placotine team suggests a list of simple activities to integrate into your daily life to get you moving as a family!

    Read the article

Take advantage of screen-free time to cook

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    Norton

    The Norton app provides complete protection for your device with antivirus, VPN, password manager and more, all in one solution!

    Buy
  •  

    Circle

    Easy to understand and use, the Circle app allows you to block certain sites and applications, in addition to controlling the time your children spend on screens.

    Buy
  •  

    Microsoft Family Safety

    This application allows you to block certain sites and/or games that are inappropriate for your children, in addition to allowing you to set limits on screen use.

    Buy

  •  

    Screen guide

    This application also allows you to effectively control the time spent on screens by your children as well as the sites and applications they are able to access.

    Buy
  •  

    Our Pact

    The primary mission of this app is to help you keep your children safe when they are online, whether that's by controlling the content they can access or the time they spend on their screens.

    Buy
  •  

    Kidslox

    In addition to allowing you to block certain games and applications on your child's device, Kidslox allows you to locate them and keep a history of their movements.

    Buy