It's My Screen Time Too

Thanks for joining us on our journey into the madness of parenting in the screen time era. Here’s our top 5 list of the best of the best we’ve reviewed over the past 8 years! Deborah: 5. Bolt 4. Ted-Ed  3. Mitchells vs. The Machines 2. Kid Cosmic 1. Art for Kids Hub   Katie 5. Shaun the Sheep 4. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 3. Dora and the Lost City of Gold 2. Curses 1. Puffin Rock Honorable...

Pixar tries once again to make Katie feel her feelings, but this time in the form of an 8-episode series instead of a movie. Previous episodes we mention: Monsters at Work   Win or Lose made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups: Lost Moneyball English Teacher This diabetes commercial  We cast our gritty Curses! reboot with: Keenan Thompson as Frank the Umpire Natasha Rothwell as Vaness...

Freed from the shackles of preschool programming, we test out the freedom of watching a show made for grown-ups with our kids: The Traitors. Contact us and subscribe to our newsletter at www.myscreentimetoo.com Connect with us on Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter or by email at myscreentimetoo@gmail.com

Sure, people who have time to watch grown-up movies may be debating the relative merits of The Brutalist and A Complete Unknown, but we know the real fight is between Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot. Listen to our takes on the family films in contention for this year’s Academy Awards. Previous Episodes We Mention Inside Out 2  The Wild Robot   Flow   Pinocchio   Wicked   Wonka   What our kids are...

Who says family screen time is incompatible with relaxation? We review the Latvian sleeper hit Flow . Things we mentioned in this episode: Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn  Previous episodes we mention: White Fang   Spaceballs   Flow made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups: The Last of Us Waterworld Contact us and subscribe to our newsletter at www.myscreentimetoo.com Connect with...

Not only are our kids bringing tech home from the classroom, they’re using more and more tech during their school days. In this week’s Screen Time in the News episode, we discuss a Wall Street Journal article that questions whether in-class tech time is time well spent. We also catch up on what our kids are watching, what we’re watching with them, and what we’re watching during our precious kid-fr...

We review the big screen adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s comic supacop, Dog Man. We cover the complicated logistics of breaking up with your boyfriend when his head has been replaced by a dog’s; the tightrope-walking required to adapt a beloved book series for the screen; and whether Dog Man’s origin story is actually far more gruesome and disturbing than we thought. Previous episodes we mention: Bad G...

Tis the season for new toys! We discuss a New York Times story about Ms. Rachel’s new line of toys and the role licensed merchandise has played in our lives and our kids’ lives. Plus, we catch up on what we’re watching with our kids and what we have our eyes on for grown-up screen time.  Things We Mention in this Episode: Ms. Rachel, YouTube Star, Is Creating a Holiday Toy Frenzy by Sapna Maheshwa...

Join us for our review of what is certainly the brownest Christmas movie of the season, An Almost Christmas Story. Did this twenty-minute special fulfill our desire for short family programming to get us in the holiday spirit? Listen to find out!  Previous episodes we mention: Peter Pan and Wendy   The Best Christmas Pageant Ever  Pinocchio   An Almost Christmas Story made us think of these movies...

We scoured the internet for a rundown of this year’s kids and family Christmas movies and found…not a whole lot. In this Screen Time in the News episode, we discuss the lack of new kids’ holiday content this year and why the cheesy holiday romance seems to have replaced the heartwarming family Christmas tale. Things we mention in this episode: The 13 Best Christmas Movies of All Time and Where to...

Wicked made a splash this Thanksgiving season, but is it a good movie to see with kids? We weigh in on all the high points of Wicked discourse: whether Ariana Grande will ever step out of her Glinda performance; whether this movie is too long for a Part I; and whether singing in the movie theater is ever okay. But most importantly, we discuss how we approached seeing Wicked as parents. Things we m...

We used to fret over our kids’ time spent in front of a screen. Now they’re a little bit older, and we get to worry over their time spent in front of multiple screens. We had so much fun discussing an article from Wired about second screening, third screening, and even fourth screening. Are we, as grown ups, surrounding ourselves with more than one screen at a time? How do we feel about our kids d...

We welcome the holiday season with a review of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. This small story makes for a big contrast with the bright, toy-filled Christmas stories we’ve gotten used to of late, and we discuss what resonated with us and what they should have done differently to bring this tale from our childhoods to life. Previous episodes we mention: Wild Robot   Klaus   Let’s Go Luna   The Be...

Our Screen Time in the News article this week broke the news that Netflix is axing almost all of its interactive content, so we spend some time pondering why the technology never took off the way we thought it might. Deborah wonders whether it can be compared to an ill-advised Cheerios flavor, and Katie uses the phrase “petit filet ice cream” for the first time in her life. We catch up on what we’...

Find out whether this tearjerker has enough substance for grown-ups and enough laughs for kids in our review of The Wild Robot. Previous episodes we mention: Kung Fu Panda 4   Wish   Despicable Me 4   Article in The Cut by Kathryn Jezer-Morton titled “Who is all that obsessively detailed college-dorm decorating really for?”   The Wild Robot made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups: Th...

We discuss the lawsuit against TikTok and the internal documents exposed by Kentucky Public Radio about the video platform’s addictiveness to vulnerable teens.  Previous Episodes We Mention: Curses !  What our kids are watching or what we’re watching with them: Georgie and Mandie’s first marriage Wild Robot Curses! Camp Cretaceous What we’re watching during grown-up screen time: Only Murders in th...

Can Apple TV+ break this year’s curse on fresh Halloween content for families? Listen to our review of Curses! to find out. Things we mentioned in this episode: Previous episodes we mention: We discussed a Good Housekeeping article about the benefits of exposing kids to scary content in our Haunted Mansion episode last year  Spooky Buddies   Bad Guys Haunted Heist   Curses made us think of these m...

We discuss The Guardian’s review of Ashley Spencer’s new book Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire and lament being too old to experience the channel’s heyday as tweens but too young to witness it with our own kids.  Things We Mention in this Episode Previous Episodes We Mention: Julie and the Phantoms   This week’s article: ‘It caught everyone by sur...

We celebrate our 200th episode with a look at where the show has been and where it’s headed. We ring in spooky season 2024 with a quick review of the Netflix special The Bad Guys Haunted Heist. Previous episodes we mention: Spooky Buddies   Phantom Pups   Interested in some faves from Halloween past? Check out this rundown .  The Bad Guys Haunted Heist made us think of these movies and shows for g...

In our last episode before our fall break, we review Apple TV’s Yo Gabba Gabbaland, a reboot of a 2000s show beloved by hipster parents everywhere. We bemoan being too old to recognize any of the impressive musical guests, and we discuss whether the “variety show” label is a positive or negative for modern preschool programming. We will be back with new episodes in October starting with a celebrat...

Peter Thiel and the San Diego Zoo gorillas help guide our conversation about our families’ back-to-school screen time policies. Previous Episodes We Mention: Are Dumb Phones a Smart Choice for Kids?  Gorillas at San Diego's zoo are getting too much screen time  Tech billionaire Peter Thiel says he only allows his children 1.5 hours of screen time a week   The Contrarian by Max Chafkin Peter T...

We have a great time reviewing Apple TV’s nerdy time-traveling adventure series Time Bandits, which manages to make ancient history look realistic while still being fun. Previous episodes we mention: Pretzel and the Puppies   Harriet the Spy   Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock  The Snoopy Show   Jane   Ghostwriter   Better Nate Than Ever  As of our taping, the original Time Bandits movie was availabl...

The box office numbers are in, and parents’ taking their kids to see movies like Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 are saving an otherwise disappointing season in Hollywood. We pat ourselves on the back for rescuing the entertainment industry and discuss what such a multiplex-heavy summer means for movies in general and our families specifically. As usual, we take time to catch up on what we’re wat...

We review the latest installment in Disney’s juggernaut tween Descendants franchise: The Rise of Red. Can Aurodon survive the replacement of its core cast? Does the soundtrack live up to previous installments? Most importantly, how happy are we to see Brandy as Cinderella again? Spoiler alert: very happy. Previous episodes we mention: Teen Beach Movie  Zombies   Zombies 2  Zombies 3  Sneakerella  ...

We talk about the trend of people dumping their smartphones for so-called dumb phones and whether this could be a smart strategy for our kids. We reminisce about our favorite flip phones and catch up on what we’re watching with our kids and what’s on our grown-up screen time watch lists. Previous episodes we mention: Despicable Me 4   Americans are ditching smartphones for 'dumb' devices...