Tips for parenting young children (0-5 y/o)
Our job as parents is not to make a particular kind of child. Instead, our job is to provide a protected space for love, safety, and stability in which children of many unpredictable kinds can flourish. Our job is not to shape our children’s minds; it’s to let those minds explore all the possibilities that the world allows. Our job is not to tell children how to play; it’s to give them the toys… We can’t make children learn, but we can let them learn. ―Alison Gopnik
👥 Serves: 1 person
🎚 Difficulty: Medium
⏳ Total time: Ongoing
🥣 Ingredients: Time for free play, “The Anxious Generation” book by Jonathan Haidt (if you’re curious to find out more about it!)
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Digital Consciousness, Liberatory Learning
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Curiosity, Digital boundaries, Digital disconnection, Fun, Play
Tips for parenting young children (0-5 y/o)
📝 Description
Supporting healthier childhood in the digital age.
In the book The Anxious Generation, author Jonathan Haidt claims that “two trends – overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world – are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation”.
Haidt calls for four foundational reforms to provide a foundation for healthier childhood in the digital age:
- No smartphones before high school.
- No social media before 16.
- Phone-free schools.
- Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence.
The following recipe offers some tips for parents of young children, aged 0 to 5.
🌟 Steps
Step 1 – Abundant free play
In the early years, young children need access to loving adults, good nutrition, and time to play. As a parent, you can be a secure base for your young child/ren, from where they can set off to explore. Give your child/ren abundant playtime, ideally including children of mixed ages.
Step 2 – Trust your child
Even at age 2 or 3, your child/ren can take on some responsibility around the house, like putting the forks on the table when setting it for a meal, or passing the dirty clothes to load the washing machine. By providing them with opportunities to feel an essential part of the family, you protect them against feeling useless later in life.
Step 3 – Less (and better) experience on screens
The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry shares the following recommendations on the use of digital devices:
- Until 18 months of age limit screen use to video chatting along with an adult (for example, with a parent who is out of town).
- Between 18- and 24-months screen time should be limited to watching educational programming with a caregiver.
- For children 2-5, limit non-educational screen time to about 1 hour per weekday and 3 hours on the weekend days.
- For ages 6 and older, encourage healthy habits and limit activities that include screens.
- Turn off all screens during family meals and outings.
- Learn about and use parental controls.
- Avoid using screens as pacifiers, babysitters, or to stop tantrums.
- Turn off screens and remove them from bedrooms 30-60 minutes before bedtime.
Lastly, it is essential you are a good role model, not someone who is continuously partly paying attention to both your child/ren and your phone.