Chip and Joanna Gaines are parents to five children as well as being potentially the most famous husband/wife home renovation duo on the planet. Sorry to all of those other design couples, but you know it's true. All of this is to say they are very busy parents who probably need to approach raising their children with something of a game plan. And that game plan does not include television. In a recent interview with Southern Living, Joanna Gaines admitted there isn't a television in her house for a pretty important reason. And it's all to do with her kids.
The Magnolia designer lives in Waco, Texas with her husband Chip Gaines and the couple's five children; three sons Drake, 14, Duke, 9, and Crew, 7 months, and two daughters Ella, 12, and Emmie Kay, 8. Not only is she busy with five children but she also enjoys a thriving, satisfying career that includes the Magnolia Silos and a magazine of the same name, she's written a cookbook, and oh yes, she and her husband are returning to television after ending their Fixer Upper series on HGTV with a new show on their very own lifestyle-focused network, as per Country Living.
I wouldn't blame her if she parked the kids in front of the television every once in awhile. But that's not Joanna Gaines' style.
As the shiplap guru explained in her interview with Southern Living, the Gaines household has some hard and fast rules about screen time, as per Pop Culture:
Our rule for the iPad is that the kids can use it a certain amount of time every other day. It’s contingent on them doing their chores and homework. I try hard to make it not the thing they look forward to every day. I don’t want them focusing on that.
Gaines also noted that there isn't even a television at their Waco, Texas farmhouse, and she has something of a theory. The less time the kids spend in front of screens, the more creative they can get, as People notes:
It’s funny when I say, 'No iPad games,' and then see the things they create and invent on their own. I’m like: 'That! That’s the stuff right there, kids.'
Chip and Joanna are so dedicated to encouraging their kids to limit their screen time that the admitted in an interview with People in August their kids don't have cell phones. And what's more, they won't have them until college:
I don’t even know what’s gonna happen when the girls start asking to wear makeup, but we keep telling our kids they don’t get a phone until they go off to college.
To be fair, I think Crew Gaines is probably fine with his mom fielding his messages for him.
I think it's safe to say that balancing screen time with other activities is top of mind for most parents in 2019. And sure, for some Joanna Gaines' rule about no television in the house might seem strict, but every family has to find their own way of striking that balance.
I have a feeling Joanna Gaines will find that balance easier than most.
