Short Form Video For Breakfast

How bad is it to make short form video a reward? A YouTube Short, a TikTok?

We’ve got two little kids, and everyone needs to get ready on weekday mornings. It’s incredibly helpful if the four-year-old gets her clothes and shoes on and brushes her teeth mostly on her own. She can do it, but only when motivated.

You know what’s really been motivating her? Animal videos.

So now we occasionally watch one after everyone’s ready. They’re usually favorites I’ve saved from TikTok over the years, or Shorts we look up about a specific animal.

A monkey eating an orange. A baby aardvark. A panda.

Sure, we could use a sticker chart instead, but she really does like pretending to be a squirrel or a seal.

I’ve seen other parents turn getting ready into a race—who can get their shoes on or brush their teeth faster—and I do that too sometimes. But it’s a lot less mental effort to turn to a cute animal video.

That’s kind of the point: it feels like cheating to use short video as a reward, but how bad is it really? I think about the longer-term implications. The short format could be problematic, leaving less room for story or patience. And the “reward” might put too much emphasis on the phone.

But for us, it’s working.

I like watching animal behavior clips with my kids. The moments are short and calm. And afterward, everyone’s happy and we move on. On the whole, it’s probably reduced frustration in the house.

We do have a guardrail: we try not to watch while eating unless we really want to learn about something together—like what kind of food an anteater eats or how panda digestion works.

In some sense, it’s ridiculous that I’m even thinking about this. But here I am. Maybe some of you are thinking about similar things too.

Thoughts? Is this something you do in your house?

In case you missed it:

This isn’t the first time short form video has factored into my family’s entertainment.

Ash Brandin helped me think more deeply about screen time and how its actually useful. Loved this interview. Since then, they’ve released a book! Here’s the review.