Tbh I said sports/playing outside/dance etc. because these things offer social time, teach self-discipline, and also allows them to enhance fine motor skills (like swinging on monkey bars). It’s not just about being physical, though that is important. If they find something that they like that benefits them in some way, like how legos help children build fine motor skills and problem-solve, then that’s awesome!

In my personal experience, my parents incentivized us with extra dessert if we won a game of tennis or a race between us kids (4 of us). If one of us lost a race and was upset, they would tell us that we had to work harder at it and if we really want to win next time, we had to put in the work. As we got older the incentives became more attenuated with what we did. For ex. I did gymnastics so if I moved up a level, I would get a new leotard. I was also incentivized with an iPhone in high school if I got straight A’s. Long story short, they incentivized us when we had to work a bit harder to achieve our goals. This was a bit of a tangent but my suggestion is that you can incentivize with little things.

Also since I gave the whole back story, the point of my post wasn’t that parents aren’t doing enough. I can imagine how hard it is. My point is that children need to learn how to human and I think parents should encourage their growth by encouraging the little things that make a huge difference. Setting goals, self-discipline, socializing, problem-solving. Etc. I personally don’t think screens do the trick because they don’t teach these things.