Tennis and my thoughts on toddler screen time

Mr. L and I always try to play tennis at least once a week. I’m terrible at it (but improving), and Mr. L is very good because he’s naturally athletic and played a lot of tennis in high school. I’m athletic too, but hand-eye coordination is not my strong suit. I rowed in college, and it was more of a continuous motion thing. No balls to chase.

Back to tennis.

While some people may consider their tennis racket and balls to be the most important equipment, I disagree. This is the most important equipment:

Two cups of ice, lots of snacks and a tablet for each kid.

Mr. L and I invested in two Amazon Fire Kids Edition tablets at the beginning of summer for the sole purpose of playing tennis once a week. Although the tablets can be glitchy, I love them because:

• They are inexpensive (we purchased them on sale for around $75 each, which is a great deal for tablets)
• They have a huge amount of kid-friendly content (books, games, and videos)
• The videos include Blippi, which my kids are obsessed with; and
• I don’t have to worry about Lamborghini stumbling upon weird stuff on YouTube when I’m not paying attention.

There are really a lot of other reasons, but those are my top four. Oh–and the main reason we bought them: so Mr. L and I can have one hour (just one!) to play tennis while the kids do their own thing. They’re good for long road trips too.

I know there is a lot of controversy surrounding the amount of screen time a child gets every day, and I suspect it is equally controversial that I bought a tablet not only for my three-year-old but also for my 18-month-old. The reality, however, is that I feel that I am a better and more engaged mom the other 98% of the time because I get to have my weekly tennis date with Mr. L and because I can get the house in order while the kids watch nursery rhymes and learn about construction vehicles on the TV (thank you Blippi).

So this is what we do. We strap Lamborghini and The Dot into the double stroller, hand them their shaved ice, their snacks, and their tablets. And then we position the stroller so they can watch us play. That last part is why we do not just hire a babysitter.

The kids don’t actually play their tablets the entire time. They sometimes watch us play. More often, Lamborghini will get our attention to let us know if The Dot is misbehaving. He’s taking his older-child role very seriously. But it is my hope that they will eventually want to be like mom and dad and take up the sport too.

At the end of our hour (or when The Dot gets tired of sitting still), we let them out of the stroller and let them play on the tennis court for a little bit.

Lamborghini is going through a bug and snail phase right now, so he mainly spends his time walking the edge of the court to look for snails. We found a dragonfly on the court last weekend, which made him really happy. We’ve also found beetles and bird feathers.

The Dot, however, is a ball girl. She is always up for practicing. She can’t quite hold her racket in position on her own yet, but she has fun hitting the ball with assistance. After a few hits, she will wander over to help Lamborghini look for snails.

After tennis, we take the kids to the park next to the tennis courts and let them run around for thirty minutes to an hour. Then we resume our day with more kid-focused activities. And lunch–when the snacks wear off.

I think back to what I have been told about the 1940s and 50s, when children were meant to be seen and not heard, and have to think that our constant presence in our children’s lives and daily interaction with them on a engaging level will be a positive influence. But even with a seemingly disconnected familial environment (from a millennial’s perspective, at least), our parents turned out ok.

And then I think back to the 1980s and 90s, when everyone I knew had a TV in their breakfast room and kept the TV in the living room turned on throughout the day for background noise. Parents were more involved, but they were also on the phone a lot. Somehow we turned out ok too.

So I feel fairly confident that the limited amount of screen time my kids get each week will not destroy them. I also feel confident that they will similarly be ok in those instances in which they get a little bit more screen time than the limited amount I am representing they get here. Because mom is happy. Dad is happy. The house is (relatively) clean. And we all get a little bit of tennis time.