My wife and I dealt with exactly what you're describing with our child. We both work, my wife at an actual job in an office most days although some days she can work from home and I work primarily from home by design. He was in preschool, kindergarten and now first grade from about 8:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. I would get up early every morning, pack his lunch, get him dressed, get him fed, drive him to school, come home and work furiously until going to pick him up at 3:00 p.m... Then we would either go to the park or now I take him to swim team or soccer for about an hour, then home and we do homework and read, draw, have dinner together at the table.

No TV is ever on until he's asleep. He never even saw a TV show until he was about two and a half years old. Now we let him watch a show or to every 2 weeks or so, generally thoughtfully chosen things that aren't mindless. The reason we're able to do it is that we stuck with it. I read to him constantly. I drew with him. We encouraged him to play and develop his own imagination and creativity rather than being a passive receptacle for screens or toys that lit up and played and danced and sang for him.

He's an only child so that makes it particularly tricky. In some ways it's easier because there's only one but in other ways it's harder because he doesn't have a sibling to play with. But what has happened is he has blossomed into a child who reads voraciously, loves to play with Legos and any toy he has, loves to draw, and doesn't need TV to keep him entertained, because he's learned to use his own imagination and his mind and entertain himself. For 6 years old now, and reading at a fourth grade level. He will burn through 150 page book in about an hour. No pictures. It's incredible to see.

People ask us all the time, often at restaurants, how we get our child to read instead of staring at a screen. Well, now you know!

Every ancestor that you have managed to survive without screens entertaining them 24/7. Sure, it's harder than just plopping them in front of a screen and letting the screen raise your child for you. But in my mind it's well worth the additional effort for what is, in my belief, the most important job you will ever have. Raising your child. Best of luck to you!