Earned access or Time budget?

The difference between Earned access and Time budget is mostly one axis: tied to behaviour. Earned access sits firmly toward earned, and taken away; Time budget sits a little toward never earned, never removed. They agree, more than most people expect, on their own device, other families and conflict the household can absorb. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Earned access

Screen time is the household currency: earned by the things that need doing, removed when things go wrong. It is easily the commonest approach in practice and the least often defended in print, which is a gap rather than a verdict. It works, in the sense that it reliably moves behaviour, and the thing it teaches about screens is that they are the most valuable thing in the house.

What it asks of you

A clear, stable list of what earns what, or it becomes a daily negotiation
Willingness to follow through on removal when that will ruin the evening
Accepting that contingency makes a thing more desirable, which is the mechanism working against you

Time budget

One number, applied daily, and inside it the child chooses. The trade is deliberate: you give up control of content in exchange for a limit that needs no judgement, no negotiation and no daily re-litigation. It is the easiest approach to run consistently and the one most likely to be undermined by the fact that twenty minutes of a maths game and twenty minutes of autoplay are not the same twenty minutes.

What it asks of you

Holding the number on the evening when an extra ten minutes would buy you peace
Accepting that a timer cannot tell the difference between two very different hours
A timer, a rule about who starts it, and an answer for what happens mid-episode

Side by side

Where they differ

Earned access is the filled marker, Time budget the hollow one. Widest difference first.

T3Tied to behaviour

never earned, never removedearned, and taken away

Earned access sits firmly toward earned, and taken away; Time budget sits a little toward never earned, never removed.

T2Shape of the rule

a fixed daily limitit depends on the day

Earned access sits between the two; Time budget sits firmly toward a fixed daily limit.

W2Who picks

the adults choosethe child chooses

Earned access sits a little toward the child chooses; Time budget sits toward the child chooses.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

Their own device. Both sit between the two.
Other families. Both sit between the two.
Conflict the household can absorb. Both sit toward able to take the argument every time.
How much the week needs them. Both sit a little toward screens are how anything gets done.
How much. Both sit a little toward as little as possible.
Alone or together. Both sit toward watching alone.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing