Should children write thank you letters this Christmas? It’ll limit their screen time, if nothing else

A study published by the University of Hong Kong warns that parents should limit their children’s screen time for better developmental and mental health.

Of the children observed, 75 per cent spent more than two hours a day looking at screens. That is more than three times as much as their American counterparts and almost twice as much as children in China.

Why Hong Kong parents should not feel guilty saying ‘no’

One, possibly knee-jerk, reaction to this would be to unplug the devices and thrust paper and crayons in your children’s direction, urging them towards oral communication and books, not software. Given the festive season, you could perhaps even insist on them writing “Thank You” letters.

When I was small, the single shadow that loomed over Christmas was the inevitable tedium of writing thank you letters; my mother was a stickler for manners. Two or three days post-festivities, in the flat hiatus between the old year and the new, my siblings and I would be obliged to sit at the dining table, chewing our pencils and wondering what to say beyond: “Dear Granny, thank you for the book. I love it”. It seemed rude not to say more.

I have inherited my mother’s habit of pressing the children to acknowledge a gift, but they are not burdened in the same way I was. A brief text message will suffice, a polite acknowledgement: “thnx 4 ur pres gran, its gr8”.

Sometimes my mother absorbs the essentials of a text message, but sometimes she is left bemused: “I haven’t a clue what she’s on about,” she will say of a text message received from my daughter.

The daughter in question tells me that “the fear that teens will soon be illiterate with gigantic, mutant thumbs due to their excessive use of mobile phones is demeaning. Just because I am a teen, it does not mean I am unable to switch between text-speak and formal essay writing. It’s as easy as switching between chatting to your friends and speaking to an elderly relation.” Your mother included, presumably.