I'm Ania Kamenets and this is NPR's Life Kit.

You know, mostly when it comes to screen time, parents are used to hearing that their

job is just to set limits and say no.

And that's really, really hard with the pandemic.

We have so much else to do and families are really struggling to sort out what's best

for everyone.

What should the rules be?

Can there even be rules right now?

So I thought this was a great time to sit down with two researchers who I really relied

on when I was writing my own book, The Art of Screen Time.

Ania Livingstone, who's at the Linnons School of Economics, and her co-author, Alicia Blumross,

who now works for Google as their first ever public policy lead for kids and families.

The two of them have a radically different idea when it comes to screen time.

That maybe, instead of just thinking about setting limits, you should choose what's right

for your kid and for your family.

And for many of the families they've talked to, that actually includes listening to what

your kids want.

Parents are trying to kind of live a different idea of family.

But often they are trying to live what is, you know, thought of as a more democratic family.

A family in which parents and children have more trust between each other and can turn

to each other when something goes wrong rather than feel they're going to be punished or

criticized.

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