Screens Are Not the Enemy (But Story Time Still Wins)

I used to feel guilty every time I handed my son a tablet.

The guilt trap

For two years I was the parent who rationed screen time to 30 minutes a day and felt terrible on the days I went over. Then I read the actual research — and realised I had been asking the wrong question entirely.

The question is not how many minutes. It is doing what. Co-viewing a nature documentary and passively scrolling through short videos are both screen time but they could not be more different.

What good digital time looks like

Educational apps where a child makes choices and sees outcomes. Video calls with grandparents. Story apps where a parent and child read together. These are all forms of screen engagement that research consistently links to positive outcomes — curiosity, language, connection.

Where story time wins every time

Nothing I have found on a screen replicates what happens when I read to my kids with no device between us. The eye contact, the physical closeness, the way I can pause and answer a question — those things do not have a digital equivalent.

My rule of thumb: screens can start the story (we love using ReadFluffy to generate the premise), but I always finish it in my own voice, in the same room, with the lights low.

“The best screen time for children is time that leads to conversation, not away from it.”

— Common Sense Media Research

Anna is finding the balance between modern parenting and old-fashioned bedtime rituals — one story at a time.