Not All Screen Time is Created Equal
I have a rule in my family: no screens in the car unless the ride is over two hours long.
In an ideal world, that rule would be one hour. But we live in Metro-Atlanta. And if you live in Metro-Atlanta, you know that sometimes it can take well over an hour just to drive from OTP to ITP. So two hours keeps screens limited to legit road trips only.
Recently, I was on a road trip with my youngest daughter and my niece. I knew the ride was long enough that screens would normally be an option. But I also knew I did not want the girls just sitting next to each other, scrolling silently on separate devices.
I wanted them to make memories.
I also did not want to hear “I’m bored” or “How much longer?” every seven minutes from the back seat. So I told them: your only screen option is Wanderwing.
And then I watched something happen.
They played Mad Lib-style story games.
They played Categories.
They had a couple of thumb wars.
Then, they were tired of playing and they just started talking.
The day before, I had taught them Pig Latin in the car, and now they were having a blast showing off their new skill. They tried to stump each other with funny Pig Latin sentences. They made silly digs at each other in this ridiculous secret-sounding language.
And then they were cackling.
Not little polite giggles.
Full belly laughs.
At one point, my niece exclaimed:
“I’ve never laughed so hard. This is the best day of my life.”
That is why I keep saying:
Not all screen time is created equal.
Because that car ride could have been two kids sitting side by side, heads down, quietly disappearing into separate digital worlds.
Instead, the screen became a spark.
The memory happened in real life.
The problem is not simply screens
Parents are often handed two choices:
Let your kids have screens.
Or take screens away.
But that framing is too simple.
The better question is:
What is the screen teaching your child to do?
Is it teaching them to scroll?
To sit still?
To consume?
To tune out the people around them?
To keep going until an adult becomes the bad guy and takes it away?
Or is it teaching them to laugh, ask questions, move, think, create, talk, take turns, and come back to real life?
That is the difference between passive consumption and active engagement.
That matters because the goal is not simply “less screen time.”
The goal is better screen patterns.
Photo by Anton Luzhkovsky on Unsplash
Passive screen time is designed to keep going
Many modern digital products are not neutral.
They are designed to keep kids engaged longer.
That is what parents are up against.
It is not just a child who does not want to stop.
It is a child using products built to make stopping difficult.
There is always another video.
Another level.
Another reward.
Another scroll.
Another thing to unlock.
Another “just one more.”
And when a screen experience has no natural ending, the parent has to become the ending.
That is when the battle starts.
Kids need practice stopping
One of the most important design choices in Wanderwing is that our games have a beginning and an end.
That may sound simple.
It is not.
A beginning and an end teaches kids that screen time can be something they complete, not something they fall into.
They start a game.
They play.
They laugh.
They finish.
They move on.
That rhythm matters because screen balance is not inherent. It is developmental.
Children are still building the skills that help them pause, shift attention, manage frustration, and transition from one activity to another. A screen experience with a natural ending gives them practice doing exactly that.
Wanderwing is not trying to win your child’s whole afternoon.
It is trying to help your child practice using a screen and then coming back to real life.
The car ride changed because the screen changed
In that car, Wanderwing did not make the girls quieter.
Mad Lib-style stories got them laughing and building ridiculous little shared worlds.
Categories got them thinking fast, listening, and taking turns.
Thumb wars got their energy moving through their bodies instead of staying trapped in that buzzy, restless post-scroll feeling.
Pig Latin gave them a shared skill, a private joke, and a reason to keep talking.
That is the part I cannot stop thinking about.
The screen was involved.
But the screen was not the point.
The point was the laughter.
The point was the conversation.
The point was two girls in the back seat realizing they could entertain each other.
That is the kind of screen time I want more kids to have.
When kids learn how to use screens—not just consume them—they build the self-regulation skills they will need for the rest of their lives.
And sometimes, if we get it right, they also get the kind of memory that makes a kid say:
“I’ve never laughed so hard. This is the best day of my life.”
