19 Things We Did to Avoid Screen Time

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We survived. Barely. Today my children had absolutely no screen time.

It’s not that I’m completely and totally against all screen time. In fact, I think a little screen time can be great (give Mommy enough time for a shower!) But everywhere you turn there are more reports on why screen time is bad, especially for kids under 2. Poor sleep, weight issues, social issues, anxiety, depression, aggression…the list seems to go on and on.

So while not every day is going to be a No-Screen-Time-At-All day, today we tried it. Also, it was snowy/rainy/cold today, so there was no help outside. This was an all-inside screen-free day.

It only took us 19 activities to make it. Some filled up the better part of an hour. Some filled about 7 seconds. Here they are.

1. Hotwheel Cars. It started out pretty well. My son got his toy cars out and drove them around and around. Sometimes in my hair. Sometimes on the baby’s face. But he (rather independently) played cars.
2. Breakfast. Really, breakfast was with cars. Sometimes he eats best when he’s slightly distracted, so I sneak toast and yogurt and fruit in front of him and he shoves it in his mouth as the car goes VRROOM!
3. Marble Run. While he’s a little young for marbles, Mom and Dad loved this as a kid and had to have it in the toy collection. Generally, we build it and give him one or two marbles so we can keep close track of them and make sure they all get returned. Today he didn’t even care about the marbles themselves. We started building but destroying was more fun. So we built and destroyed. And then used the small connector pieces to make a little telescope to look at each other through.
4. Get Dressed. I take a quick shower while the baby bounces in his chair and the toddler roams the house. I’m not always sure what he’s doing. But after my shower, I see if he wants a bath (he doesn’t) and we get dressed.
5. Watched the Garbage Trucks. Today is garbage day, a real treat for every toddler. And we have the perfect house to watch the trucks because there’s a kind of dead end in front of our house, so besides going up and down our street, the trucks have to turn around a lot right in front of our big window. There are recycling trucks and garbage trucks. In the summer we also have yard waste trucks. The trucks make a lot of noise, so we really did this multiple times, as he’d drop everything and run for the window whenever he heard the trucks.
6. Animal Puzzles. My son got these for Christmas. Each picture of an animal is a simple, two-piece puzzle. He gets frustrated easily trying to put the pieces together, so we mainly make it a matching game. I hold up the elephant head and ask him if he can find the elephant tail. He puts his finger to his chin and says, “hmm” and gets to work finding it. Usually, he finds it pretty quickly. Eventually, this dissolves into throwing the pieces, which is when we pick it up and put it away.
7. Washed our hands. My son is either a little OCD (both parents are…he comes by it honestly) or he really likes playing in the water. So every time we change a diaper, eat a snack, or really touch anything, it’s a good excuse to wash our hands. Sometimes it’s at the bathroom sink with the bath toys close at hand. Sometimes it’s in the kitchen sink with fun dishes to dump around. Either way, it takes a LONG time to wash sufficiently.
8. Danced on wrapping paper. This was something new today that my son made up. We’d wrapped a present for a cousin yesterday and Mommy forgot to put the wrapping paper away. He unrolled it across the floor and busted a move. Then demanded Mom join in. It’s apparently fairly durable stuff because it survived the dancing. It’s also kind of shiny, so that’s fun. Even the baby got into it and did some tummy time on the crinkly, shiny, paper.
9. Alphabet Puzzle. My son found a wooden puzzle board he’s lost the pieces to, but it reminded me I had this alphabet puzzle for him. So we pulled it out and had fun dumping off all the pieces and slowly putting it back together. We go over the letters and their sounds as we find their place.
10. Lunch and Snacks. All throughout the day, we made time for fruit, crackers, the occasional cookie. Sandwiches for lunch too. Gotta keep our energy levels up!
11. Went to Grandma’s. It takes a village, right? About this time I needed reinforcements. Grandma lives close by and we had some things to pick up, so we loaded up in the car to go see her. Besides loading two boys, we obviously needed to bring a couple of our Hotwheels, a sponge ducky, and our sip cup. After all, it’s quite the trek, we might need refreshment. We drove to Grandma’s and managed to stay awake the whole way! Mom stopped to text Dad before unloading kids only to turn around and find that that 30-second delay had caused both boys to fall asleep in the car. So we didn’t stay at Grandma’s. Mom went through a drive-thru on the way home celebrating nap time.
12. Watched the UPS truck. Only, nap time was not meant to be. The baby kept sleeping, thankfully, but the toddler refused to transfer from the car. He had been promised Grandma’s and woke to find himself back at home. Luckily, the UPS truck pulled up to leave us a package. This distracted him only long enough to get inside the house completely.
13. Musical Instruments. Good news, though, UPS was bringing us a fun surprise! We love music around here, and totally believe in the benefits for kids and life, so we added to our instrument collection (we have a piano, a recorder from the dollar store, and Alexa) with a tambourine, maracas, bells, sticks, a triangle, and most importantly, an xylophone. We danced and sang and played for quite a while with these!
14. Made Dinner. We had a lovely baked salmon and salad. And since my son always eats a little better if he “helps” make it, he helped salt and pepper the fish and toss the salad.
15. Exercised. While Mommy does some push-ups, he pretends to do some too, laughing and giggling the whole time. The while attempting mountain climbers and hip extensions, he climbs on top to provide some weights. Very helpful.
16. Climbed on Daddy. Lest you think that only Mommy rolls around on the floor with the kids, rest assured Daddy puts in his time too. Probably more fun from the kids perspective too, as he is more gentle wrestling than Mommy’s efforts to strength-train.
17. Played Ring Around the Rosie. I know this song has some weirdly hidden meanings, but we all grew up playing it. And it suddenly occurred to me in all our rolling and tumblings that my son was probably big enough now to do some things like this! So over and over we all fell down. And got back up and did it again.
18. Played Peek-a-boo. A blanket sat next to Mommy, so clearly, we had to play some peek-a-boo. But I can’t resist the giggling it solicits.
19. Bath time. Both boys in the tub. They love it. Lots of laughter and fun. And water everywhere. But we sing about rubber duckies and octopus’ gardens and some of our own original compositions. It’s actually like a concert in there!

So there you have it. Nineteen exhausting activities, but totally worth it. Some of these were done to get activity boxes ready for the nanny starting soon as maternity leave finally ends. And screen time will, I’m sure, still be a part of our days. But hopefully in small amounts. And we’ve proven to ourselves we don’t have to have it!