FORMER Love Island star Montana Brown has come under fire after she opened up about her issues finding a primary school for her son.
Montana, who to three-year-old son Jude and eight-month-old daughter Miley with fiancé Mark O’Connor, took to social media to share her list of must haves for her son’s school.
Montana took to TikTok to vent her frustrations with schools
The Love Island star slammed schools for dishing out sugary snacks to kids
The mum asked other parents what they thought of kids having screen time at school
In the viral clip, she explained she had started the process of looking for at for her son, Jude, but was left unimpressed.
“The most important things in my head are nutrition, quality of teaching, and use of screen time,” she said in the clip.
The mum noted she currently doesn’t give Jude any screen time and wants his future school to stick to the same strict rule.
So after visiting several school open days she was shocked to discover screen time would be a big part of their school life.
“When I send him to school I don’t want him to be watching a screen at all, and on a lot of these open days they’re talking about using Chrome Books for their homework as they get into the older years,” Montana explained.
The former star insisted her son’s time would be better spent doing something else, like playing sports, rather than looking at a screen.
The mum went on to add that if she does ever want to watch a film with her son on the weekend, she’d feel better about it if she knew he hadn’t also been looking at a screen at school.
“At the end of the day, if someone is going to be watching a film with my son, it’s going to be me,” she said.
But screen time wasn’t the only issue she had as she slammed schools for giving kids sugary treats throughout the day.
She pointed out that snacks like biscuits and donuts are bad for kids and can negatively affect their concentration as well as their , so she doesn’t like the idea of schools giving them out.
“I want to do it on the weekend as a treat, I want to be the one to treat him,” she said.
Montana went on to ask fellow parents what they thought about the matter, but not everyone agreed with her strict rules.
One commented: “I think you’re looking for the perfect school and that doesn’t exist.”
A second said: “Is this rage bait? They’re not watching movies at school, they are learning and moving with the times on laptops.
“All schools have a healthy eating policy and they are not allowing sugary treats for break.”
And a third wrote: “Chill out, schools know what they are doing.”
Meanwhile, others said Montana would have to home school her kids if she wants to be in control of everything they do.
“It sounds like you should look into home-schooling, that’s the only way you’ll get everything you want,” one said.
But some teachers hit back at Montana’s claims and noted they never give kids unhealthy snacks, and screentime is only used to learn, as part of the curriculum.
One said: “They need to be gaining experience in ICT to prepare them for the world, they learn how to code and create things. Do you think they’re watching films at school?”
But this isn’t the first time the mum has insisted her kids don’t watch screens, as she previously banned her little ones from watching the in-flight entertainment on a flight.
And sticking to her no-screens rule meant that the pair turned into “human climbing frames” for the entirety of the flight.
“So we flew a few days ago and when I say it’s times like six hour flights, being a human climbing frame that really makes you think why don’t I let my kids watch screens?” Montana said in a video on her TikTok page.
“Mark and I could have eaten our meals together and we could have actually read a book, watched a film ourselves,” she said.
But they eventually decided that they’d “come too far” to “give in to Jude watching TV”.
“We flew during the day so I just thought, you know what, suck it up, we’ve got this,” she laughed.
How long should kids be on screens?
Dr Amanda, who's a parenting expert and child psychologist gave a general guide for parents who wish to limit screen time.
Age 1-3 years old
How long: 5 minutes per year of life in one sitting
Dr Gummer says: “If you are really hoping your child will learn from the screen time they have then one rule of thumb is that on average children can concentrate for 5 minutes per year of their life (i.e. 15 minutes at age 3).”
Age 1+
How long: 1 hour per day
Dr Gummer says: “For younger children we feel that around 1 hour per day is a sensible limit to aim for on a regular weekday.
“Once you add together time on mobile devices, TV, computers and other devices with screens this may not seem like much (and remember children may get screen time at school).”
Age 2+
How long: 2 hour per day
Dr Gummer says: “Various sources including the American Academy of Paediatrics recommend no more than 2 hours per day (for children aged 2 and over).”
Children of all ages
Over two hours a day is excessive usage
Dr Gummer says: “A recent study saw some detrimental effects in teenagers that used more than 3 hours per day of screen time and consider this ‘excessive usage’
