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How to handle screen time — when you can't stop

Moves for when one more game turns into the whole night.

It's late, you said you'd stop two hours ago, and 'one more' keeps winning.

Right now

  • Set a hard stop with an alarm in another room — you have to get up to turn it off.
  • Finish the current game, then physically leave the setup. Stand up, walk away.
  • Put the controller away, not within reach.

Don't

  • Don't start 'one more' — that's the line that eats the night.

Later

  • Set a play window in advance, and an alarm. Decide before you sit down.

More on this → Gaming & screen time

Screen time: the short version

  1. 1.Hard-stop alarm in another room.
  2. 2.Decide your window before you sit down.
  3. 3.Never 'one more' — that's the trap line.
  4. 4.Charge devices outside the bedroom.
  5. 5.The game's often the escape — name what from.
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