An Aussie grandfather has exposed a major pain point for people like him across the country.
Eddie Fakhri told Yahoo Lifestyle he has a six-month-old granddaughter, whom he gets to look after from time to time.
But Eddie’s son has given him a rule he must abide by whenever his granddaughter is at his place: she’s only allowed 15 minutes of screen time.
A grandparent has exposed a major issue facing many older Aussies.
(TikTok/@eddiefakhri88/Getty)
The 53-year-old shared this on social media, and the video was inundated with comments from other grandparents complaining about being given a similar rule.
“If they want their kids to stay at Nana and Poppy Day Care, then their rules don’t apply here. Nana and Pops have their own rules,” one said online.
“You’re lucky 15 minutes. I get zero for my grandkids,” another added.
“It’s insane. They forgot that we brought them up into amazing adults, and now we walk on eggshells,” wrote a third.
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Eddie told Yahoo Lifestyle that he knew his take would resonate with others in Australia, as it goes against decades of how people grew up, but he didn’t expect the level of emotion it sparked.
The real estate agent said that when he was younger, he’d watch the movie Grease over and over, and his own son watched a lot of television as well, and both have turned out fine.
“When we were younger, that’s all we knew. But it’s just changed completely,” he said.
Do you have a grandparent story? Get in touch claudia.poposki@yahooinc.com
“I don’t think the younger generation will ever understand the older generation’s point of view.”
He’s aware that parking kids in front of a tablet or phone for hours on end can be bad.
But he questioned the idea of simply having old school films, such as Singing In The Rain, playing in the background.
Eddie added that there wasn’t a lot that could be done with a six-month-old at this stage.
What’s the issue with screen time for kids?
Government guidelines introduced in 2018 stated that kids under two should have no screen time.
It also stated kids between two and five should have no more than an hour, and kids older than that should only have two hours of sedentary recreational screen time a day outside of schoolwork.
The guidelines didn’t differentiate between television, phones and tablets, and were set over concerns that too much screen time could impact weight and cause behavioural issues.
Eddie said that with children in 2026, they either seemed to be completely banned from screens or were completely glued to an iPad.
While many parents across the country are trying to adhere to those 2018 guidelines, grandparents aren’t as on board with the idea.
An Australian Seniors report published this year found 57 per cent of grandparents over 50 have a different parenting styles to their kids.
The biggest differences were around discipline and setting boundaries (56 per cent), expectations for behaviour and manners (47 per cent), and managing screen time (46 per cent).
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