We struggle with this. And as an older, second time around parent, I definitely feel the struggle on both fronts:
Many poor videos, and just general patenting energy required.
Down thread, someone put the watch it with them email queue idea out there. Awesome! I am going to do that.
Overall, our best success is to have activities that are not screen time.
Many parents who may struggle financially, and there are way too many who do, in my view, lack time and potentially resources.
This is a growing pinch for a while now. Tepid wage growth coupled with cost and risk exposure growth mean more labor and or fewer resources, both of which come right out of parenting.
Some of it lands in the schools. The pandemic made that a mess and maybe for the better?
By that I mean a whole lot of us have had to pick up the slack and or are doing more parenting right now. (That may come at a high financial cost due to lack of work, which is not good either)
It is really hard to put costs on all this, but my general take on it all, comparing my childhood, that of my own kids and granddaughter now is:
Opportunity costs are going to be huge!
The squeeze on parenting, coupled with the general complexity of the society our future leaders and caretakers are expected to take part in, Shepard and grow to greater success, looks increasingly grim.
I came out of high school computer literate, could code, but also with a ton of other skills. Fix my car, or many things really, work with wood, metals, and in general could take most work and thrive.
My own kids got a fair amount of that, but I had to provide way more than my parents did.
Today, I see I will have to provide a lot more.
The general idea of so much greater information availability means less work educating has merit. I know what I would have done with that kind of access as a kid.
But does it mean less parenting?
Does it mean less exposure to basic skills?
From my point of view, no. It does not.
And to be clear here, my own parenting goals are to get the kids to a place where they can thrive and that means basic competence on many fronts just like I got.
It may also mean part of the education burden is curating all this stuff and to teach them what to look for and how to make use of it.
Most of us know. My kids mostly know and will ask for help sometimes. Less often as they grow in life.
In my view, emphasis on broad, basic competence is more important bow than ever. If they can relate to things, have some experience, they will seek and be able to make use of the information resource and it will seem achievable too, not foreign, or unattainable.
For now, I am making sure my younger one gets outside and is experiencing a broad set of skills. Just getting a handle on this world and the things in it.
Parents need to be able to do that, and or for the many struggling parents who may not have a base to draw on, even if they do have time, need help, and may well benefit same as their kids do.