Father of seven comes up with creative way to reduce children’s screen time
Richard Wadsworth, a 41-year-old trained psychiatrist and father of seven residing in Idaho, noticed concerning signs in his children and came up with a creative idea to limit their screen time, with significant success.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wadsworth observed that his children’s screen time had significantly increased as their schooling transitioned online.
“They were almost constantly glued to screens,” he told The Epoch Times, “even their leisure activities were screen-based.”
From watching YouTube videos to playing various online games, electronic devices began pervading every aspect of their lives.
“To me, it resembled what I’ve seen with addictive behaviors,” Wadsworth said, drawing on his experiences dealing with alcoholics and drug addicts as a psychiatrist.
In his work, he encountered several teenage patients who exhibited signs of apathy and agitation.
Baffled and curious about these children’s conditions, Wadsworth asked the parents how their children spent their days, and the common answer he received was that they were on their phones all day.
For some children, when their phones were taken away, they resorted to self-harm or threatened violence towards others.
“Many of the children I treated ended up in mental hospitals,” he said. “Their behavior was like someone forcibly taking away their heroin or something similar. Seeing this situation truly alarmed me.”
Witnessing these extreme behaviors in his young patients led him to conclude that the modern lifestyle of young people was vastly different from his own outdoor-oriented childhood.
His experiences dealing with patients addicted to technology prompted him to pay closer attention to how much time his own children spent on screens. This led him to discuss the negative impact of excessive screen time on their mental health. Initially, he faced resistance from most of his seven children, ranging in age from 1 to 14 years.
“They didn’t want to stop using electronic devices,” Wadsworth said. “They wanted to continue watching screens and enjoy the content.”
Coincidentally, one of his daughters also realized the harm of being addicted to electronic devices and sought to break free from the screen’s hold. She approached her father saying, “Dad, I need you to help take this computer away, or just smash it and throw it in the trash. I’ve spent too much time staring at the computer screen to the point where I don’t want to do anything else. Whenever I have the chance, I try to get back to the computer and spend hours watching TikTok or YouTube videos.”
Realizing that completely removing electronic devices from their lives was challenging, he devised a more practical idea of implementing a “screen curfew” during designated times each day.
Just a day after implementing the curfew, he found all his children (except the youngest) engaged in reading. It was a sight he had never seen before.
Soon, the “screen curfew” time was filled with a series of meaningful activities such as cleaning rooms, doing laundry, engaging in sports, and playing outdoors. In other words, Wadsworth would provide his children with a task list, lock away all electronic devices in his office, and only return them after the tasks were completed.
Since implementing these methods to reduce screen time, he found that it had a positive impact on his children.
“They are spending more and more time playing outside, hanging out with friends, enjoying various outdoor activities, and they even built a small fortress in the backyard. Additionally, they have developed a greater interest in reading,” he said. “This week, I have had a fulfilling and happy time with my children.”
Encouraged by the results, Wadsworth recorded an explanatory video and shared it online, which quickly gained popularity. Many parents resonated with his approach and left comments sharing their experiences in the comment section.
Now, Wadsworth does not allow his children to have access to smartphones. Each child owns a basic phone with functions like calling, texting, and maps.
His advice to other parents is to wait until their children are 18 before buying them smartphones.
“If children have their own smartphones at a young age, once they get addicted, it can be very dangerous in many ways,” he said.