{"id":167,"date":"2016-04-27T08:32:41","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T16:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nathanbak.com\/?p=167"},"modified":"2026-01-02T20:02:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:02:38","slug":"can-i-have-screen-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/?p=167","title":{"rendered":"Can I have screen time?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/echo.amazon.com\/#skills\/amzn1.echo-sdk-ams.app.ffc638c6-b74a-4533-8cdf-2f7c04c98508\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-174 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nathanbak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/screen_large-300x300.png\" alt=\"Nanny State\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/screen_large-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/screen_large-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/screen_large.png 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Screens provide &#8220;cheap&#8221; entertainment.\u00a0 By &#8220;cheap&#8221; I&#8217;m not referring to the cost in terms of money, but rather effort to participate.\u00a0 It&#8217;s much easier to turn on the TV and vegetate than to go on a hike and easier to hop on social media than call up a friend and go see a movie.\u00a0 Because of the ease, screens are often the go-to entertainment choice.<\/p>\n<p>In my home, the kids tend to frequently want screen time not only in lieu of entertainment that requires effort, but often instead of performing other, more important tasks.\u00a0 So, when a kid expresses a desire to a parental unit for permission to utilize a screen, the parent typically ascertains things such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Status of homework<\/li>\n<li>Status of chores<\/li>\n<li>Completion of daily instrument practice<\/li>\n<li>State of personal space (room clean, bed made, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>If any sanctions are in place prohibiting screen use<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even though the kids are familiar with the criteria, usually there are multiple requests made before the kid has completed everything necessary to be allowed screen time.\u00a0 Each of the rejections could be deemed as a negative parent\/child interaction.\u00a0 I decided to offload this monotonous task and created Nanny State.<\/p>\n<p>Nanny State is a Alexa Skill for the Amazon Echo.\u00a0 Basically, a kid says &#8220;Alexa, ask Nanny State if I can have screen time.&#8221;\u00a0 The kid then must respond to a few yes\/no questions covering the items in the list above.\u00a0 If the kid provides an unsatisfactory answer, the response is &#8220;No screen for you.&#8221;\u00a0 If all answers are as they should be, the kid is instructed to confirm with a parent.<\/p>\n<p>For fun, I submitted Nanny State to Amazon.\u00a0 This morning I received an e-mail stating that &#8220;Your Alexa skill Nanny State is now live!&#8221;.\u00a0 This means that anyone who owns an Echo can go to the Alexa App or http:\/\/echo.amazon.com\/#skills and enable Nanny State (or click on the image and it will take you there).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/echo.amazon.com\/#skills\/amzn1.echo-sdk-ams.app.ffc638c6-b74a-4533-8cdf-2f7c04c98508\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-175 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nathanbak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/enableNannyState.png\" alt=\"enableNannyState\" width=\"628\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/enableNannyState.png 628w, https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/enableNannyState-300x90.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Screens provide &#8220;cheap&#8221; entertainment.\u00a0 By &#8220;cheap&#8221; I&#8217;m not referring to the cost in terms of money, but rather effort to participate.\u00a0 It&#8217;s much easier to turn on the TV and vegetate than to go on a hike and easier to hop on social media than call up a friend and go see a movie.\u00a0 Because &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/?p=167\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Can I have screen time?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,11],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-nanny-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}