American MMA

How to Minimize Your Childs Screen Time and Keep Them Active!

With consistent Mixed Martial Arts Training, they become the star of their own team all while receiving great self-defense training combined with old school character development attributes. Let us help you fight this battle.

It is a difficult task for sure. My 9 yo was always taking my phone and deleting my apps to put his apps on instead. I scolded him as he was always deleting my banking apps. One day I was upset that my banking apps were once again missing. He corrected me and showed me that he put all my banking apps into one group so I could easily access them. Pretty impressive as I don’t even know how to do that. I am obviously not as smart as my phone and use it to mostly call and text but still I found that pretty neat and troubling at the same time.

Text “youth training” to 952-457-7743 to receive 30 days FREE.

How did he learn that I have no idea. Technology is a gift and a curse. Go to a restaurant and view how many families are staring at the screen instead of engaging in conversation. We all know it is a problem and yet we all scroll.

I now at suppertime make my older kids put their phones in a tupperware until we are done eating. I don’t allow phones out when we are at a restaurant. When we do chores as a family or an activity I now have them put their phones away. It is a constant battle.

For my little guy who doesn’t have a phone yet I hide the remote control and put gaming on a timer when he has earned screen time.
Now to sound really old and show my age. Pushing 60 now, I remember a simpler time. No phones, video games were at the arcade and came with hanging out and socializing. The game itself wasn’t important, hanging out with friends was. I grew up only knowing one family that was really into video games and had a set up in their living room. They never went outside much and we all viewed them as house dwelling dorks. Now I am the dork because my 9 yo can group my banking apps and I still don’t know how he did it.

That was a golden time never to happen again. My oldest son who is a senior now was frustrated because all of his friends never wanted to do anything except gaming. I told him that he must initiate the fun times and force his friends to go out. Which he did but it seemed really odd for me even to have to mention that.


Being sedentary and sitting on a screen chatting to people is now cool and no one goes out to do the fun things kids are supposed to do.

We can’t change that, we can’t fix that, we can’t bring back the era of building a bike ramp or walking for miles to get someplace. We can’t bring back riding our bikes all summer where your mom and dad didn’t even know where you were. We can’t bring back the fun neighborhood games that went on in every neighborhood across America.

Remember at 10pm when the TV had the announcement….it’s 10pm do you know where your kids are?? Which seems so distant and hilarious that our parents had to be reminded that their kids might still be out roaming around causing mischief. Now I know where my kids are at all moments. Which is both good and bad I suppose.

What we can do however is try to limit, keep our children active. Prepare healthy foods for the whole family, throw out all junk food and force them into viewing screen time as a treat and not an activity when boredom sets in.

We preach and practice minimal screen time. We reward our youth program with stripes and belts for lack of screen time (of course they have to earn it showing martial arts skills also) but what’s the harm in giving a child an extra stripe for showing productive self discipline. There is no down side.

We view things a little differently. Along with cutting edge self-defense that has actually been proven to be effective we also adhere to many principles and ideas that seem to be kicked by the wayside.

* Keep score, learn to win and lose gracefully.
* No participation trophies.
* Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.
* Patriotism is an attribute, we love America.
* We have God given rights.
* Respect for parents and teachers.
* Eat from the earth, if man makes it, don’t eat it.
* Self-discipline will overcome most problems.
* Proper hand shake will make a good first impression.
* Always look someone in the eyes while speaking.
* Keep yourself mentally and physically strong.

I could go on but I am sure you get where we are going. The sign of the times tells me you will either love what we say or quite the opposite. It’s sad that America is so divided. If you agree with what we are promoting please give a call/text to 952-457-7743 to set up your free 30 day trial.

Text “youth training” to 952-457-7743 to receive 30 days FREE.