This is your 2-minute warning

My little bear bears through the morning routine the best way he can. He whimpers as I help him get dressed and he slunks off to completed his bathroom stuff on his own. By the time he is finished, he is fully awake and ready to play. Our deal is that he can have screentime on his iPad until it is time to go to school.

I generally tell him how much time he has before he starts to play (generally within the 10-15 minute range). When I am ready to go, I tell him to wrap it up and we head out the door. I've never tried to give him a two-minute warning.

And that is a good thing, as researchers have found that the two-minute warning only makes children angrier. That's right: Warning your child that they are about to lose screentime only makes their tantrums larger.

It's important to note that this is really a problem with the one- to five-year-old set, or (as I prefer to call them) the power-struggle set. Little children still don't have a very good concept of time, so telling them that they only have two minutes left makes them angry, as they know that "two" is not a large number.

So...is no warning for the end of screentime any better? I think it depends on the child, but go ahead and leave me a comment telling me about your experience.