I don't want to leave them to their own devices

I was listening to a radio program a few weeks ago that featured director Judd Apatow and his new movie, This is 40. I haven't yet seen the movie, but a clip that played on the program resonated with me. The mother and father are pleading with their tween daughter to find something to do that doesn't involve a screen. The mother implores the daughter to play outside, says something like, "When I was your age, we would just go outside and play with sticks." The daughter, of course, dismisses this with an eye roll and pithy comment.

The issue of screen time is one that dogs me continually. It's not so much managing the amount that bothers me. We allot a certain time each day, though I did feel a flash of shame when a mom next to me at yoga class was detailing how she allows her children no screen time during the week and 40 minutes per day on the weekend. You're a better woman than I, sister.

No, what concerns me is how much my kids fixate on spending time with screens. We give the boys some time after school, but that doesn't stop them from asking to play or watch something morning, noon and night. It's like they live for it. And the zombie stares they sometimes have while playing or watching? Scary.

When I was a kid, there was TV, Atari was in its prime, we had a Commodore 64 computer by the time I was a little older. I could be wrong, but I don't recall those being an obsession for me. I remember spending long hours playing Barbies with my next door neighbor. But for all I know, we spent just as much time badgering my mom to let us watch Looney Tunes, or whatever, complained of boredom just as often as my kids do now.

On Christmas Day, Mark and I decreed that there would be no screen time. The boys suffered withdrawal, and I was beginning to wish iPods, tablets and Nintendo DSs had never been invented. To seal just how old I sound, I was wishing for a simpler time, one when kids could simply enjoy their new toys without asking when they could check on their Tiny Monster kingdom (it's an app thing - consider yourself lucky if you know not of what I speak).

It seems to me that this is just the zeitgeist. Screens are so ubiquitous now - smart phones, tablets, laptops, iPod touches. I'm embarrassed to say that as a 2-year-old, Gus could navigate an iPhone with surprising deftness.

I guess that I can't fairly look at this issue without turning introspective. I'm uncomfortable with my own attachment to my iPad. How much can I legitimately complain when Mark and I sit down to breakfast with our twin tablets each morning? What kind of example am I setting?

I've long resisted the cell phone culture. We still have a landline, and my cell phone is a ridiculously old track phone that I rarely use. Mark keeps offering to buy me a fancier phone, but to tell the truth, I don't want one. I know how much my fingers itch to check my email, Facebook, Entertainmentweekly.com, when I'm at home. I don't like the way it makes me feel. I have a strong desire to not be connected everywhere I go.

There's no simple answer here. I know some parents do a much better job of limiting their kids' entertainment than we do. We've made choices, and it feels daunting to walk those back. I guess I'll have to look at shelving my iPad a little more, send my kids outside to play with sticks. Maybe I should go out there with them while I'm at it.

I'm curious. How do you handle this with your kids?