[dougireton]

I have four kids ages 14, 11, and twin 7-year olds. We have never watched TV, don't own any tablets, etc. We rarely watch movies (about a movie every 2 months or so), although I just took the older two to Star Wars. So basically little to no screen time at all for our kids when they were under two.

I can only comment our our family's experience. Our kids have never said they were bored. They build things in the garage out of scrap wood. They play with Legos. My eldest son has built several working boats from scratch, including a birch bark canoe. My daughter spoke at Velocity Conf in 2014 with me on learning to program (she was 7). All of my kids love to read, draw, create, etc.

Anecdotally, I'd say no screen time has forced my kids to not be passive consumers, but to be creative in many different ways. They are also kind and empathetic, probably from so much reading.

I think Facetime with grandma is just fine, even for little kids.

The one or two times our kids came home from their grandparents and had watched 2 - 3 movies, they were crabby and demanding. So we had a gentle chat with my parents to not show them >1 movie per visit.