Screen time gets a bad rap. Often, it’s deserved. Sometimes it’s not. 

Here are some reasons why I value screen time in my house. 

• Family movie night. Everyone together hanging out. No phones allowed. 

• Illness. If you have a sick child or parent, then screens are a gift handed down by Zeus himself. 

• Education. We use YouTube to answer questions we can’t answer ourselves, or to bring our answers to life, like how the solar system works. 

• Complement books. My son loves the Captain Underpants books, so we watched the movie. He loved it. 

• Computer games. Anything that requires problem-solving, building, exploring, creating or watching a great story unfold. Bonus if we can play together. 

• The Cinema. No toys. No talking. No running around. Just sitting down in the dark, in silence, concentrating on a single story from beginning to end. 

• Calming a dysregulated child. Sometimes a single episode of a preschool programme helps our youngest (almost two) decompress when life gets a bit too much. 

• Video calls. Grandparents, relatives and friends. A screen can enhance connection. 

• The third parent. Sometimes one child watches television so both parents can give the other their full attention. Or when both parents need time to team up and focus on something else, like packing for a trip. 

• Parental self-preservation. When life starts to unravel, and you’re about to lose your absolute shit if you’re stimulated any more. 

Screen time is neither good nor evil. And it’s never going away. So, I don’t resist it. My wife and I agree on parameters and employ systems.  

And if we need to toss it all out the window from time to time, then we do that too. 

Screen time is a tool. What matters is how, why and when you use it.