Handheld Overload: Why kids should put down devices

An article on the Huffington Post's Parents' section is making the rounds on my Facebook feed. With something like 250,000 Facebook shares at last check, I'm sure it's probably appeared on yours too.

In the article, Chris Rowan, a pediatric occupational therapist, biologist, speaker and author, shares the 10 reasons why handheld devices should be banned for kids ages 12 and under. This isn't entirely new information. 

But Rowan goes further, listing research that has found that too much exposure can have an impact on a child's brain growth, development, weight gain, sleep, mental health and more. 

Amen.

I'm no scientist. I can't speak to the studies and research that Rowan highlights in her post.

But I am a mom of two kids, ages 4 and 9, who get very little screen time. I'm here to say that it's possible; it works; and that I wouldn't do it any other way.

What does very little screen time in my house mean? When they were infants, we only watched TV when they were sleeping. We never had the TV on for background noise. We still don't.

They saw very little TV and had almost no access to a computer and, in the case of my older daughter, a smartphone, until they were four or older. When we're on long, multi-state car rides, they play travel board games and word games; draw; read; eat countless snacks; and stare out the window.

When we're at home on your average weekend day, they are playing in the backyard, building forts inside the house, playing games, reading, doing puzzles, creating elaborate stories, reading more books and just hanging out. My husband or I read between 10 and 25 books most days to our four-year-old.

When they say they're bored, I say good. It's an opportunity for them to tap into their own creativity and imagination. Sure, I hear complaints sometimes. That's life.

They have pretty amazing imaginations.

We haven't shut the technology down completely here. When my younger daughter turned four, we started monthly family movie nights. My older daughter watches about two hours of TV on the weekends after her sister has gone to bed. We enjoy watching cooking shows together. My younger daughter usually watches one or two 30-minute "Doc McStuffins" a week.

My younger daughter has a handful of games that she plays on my phone about one hour a week when I'm helping her sister with something or when I'm on a rare work phone call. My older daughter spends about an hour or less a week playing educational games online, including a game that her teachers use to help kids with social studies and science vocabulary.

They sometimes watch TV or play games when they are at friends houses. That's fine with me.

When a friend came over one day, he asked where our Wii was.

"What's a Wii?" my four-year-old asked.

Am I setting my kids back because they don't have the latest gadgets? Will they be able to survive in this world so focused on all things technology? 

Please. 

Do you remember back when you were a kid? I do. I remember my high school "technology" class where we'd key in a line of very simple code on those giant green screens. As I sit with my smartphone next to me and writing on my laptop, I am here to say that that class did nothing to advance my computer skills today. 

This is a fast-paced, evolving field. Who knows what gadgets will look like years from now. 

This also is an evolving field of research. Who really knows what technology's true impact is on our kids. Is reading for hours on an ereader the same as watching hours of cartoons? I don't know.

What I do know is that I want my kids going out into the world with more than just hours and hours of screen time under their belts. I want them to get muddy. I want them to daydream. I want them to be bored. And then I want to watch them create the most amazing things.

Who knows? Maybe they'll be just like their dad. He's a software developer.