A North Carolina mother concerned that her five-year-old daughter was spending too much time on her iPad shared how her daughter is coping without it in a TikTok diary that has since gone viral.
Stephany Faublas, who works as a content creator and recruiter, said Fox Digital News that her daughter Cadence Gray uses her iPad while she is busy juggling her work schedule and deadlines.
“I had had an incredibly busy week working from home,” she said in part. “I wasn’t able to pay much attention to it and relied on the iPad to make up for my absence.”
Faublas said she “drastically reduced” her daughter’s iPad use earlier this month and replaced screen time with educational activities.
“At first, I was nervous about her reaction. Screen time is addictive,” Faublas said. “To my surprise, she was willing to accept it. She didn’t resist.”
Your daughter has been thriving and you have already seen her confidence grow.
Stephany Faublas pictured with her daughter Cadence Gray, 5, who is entering kindergarten.
The young woman is happy to share in the video that she is practicing writing her lyrics.
In the video, Cadence is seen using a number two pencil with an eraser to practice writing letters in an exercise book.
The young girl seems excited and proud of herself as she writes a capital “B” and a lowercase “B.”
“Three in a row. You guys can’t really beat me,” Cadence said, smiling.
Faublas recorded her daughter’s enthusiasm in the online journal, and it’s one way to keep her motivated.
“Their enthusiasm to get started made me want to record and preserve the moment, just in case the enthusiasm wasn’t the same the next day,” he said.
“I thought I could use this video to remind him of his enthusiasm for learning.”
Cadence is practicing writing upper and lower case letters in a workbook.
The mother describes her soon-to-be kindergarten-bound daughter’s personality as “bold” and has seen her blossom since removing the device.
The TikTok video has garnered nearly 7 million views since going viral.
Some viewers shared how grown-up and advanced Cadence is and some said she gives them “class president” vibes.
For Faublas, sharing her daughter’s journey has been cathartic — a form of sisterhood for the working single mother.
“It’s amazing. It makes me emotional to think about it,” she said, describing some of the users as “aunties and Internet teachers” interested in her daughter’s well-being.
The AAmerican Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry recommends that children ages 2 to 5 limit non-educational screen time to about one hour per weekday and 3 hours on weekends.