The nightly screen-time tug-of-war rarely has a winner — what loses is the relationship. RestBud turns the rules into a timetable, and when time is up it's your own recorded voice, not a cold countdown.
Every household runs the same script: "Five more minutes." Five minutes pass, then five more. Eventually the adult takes the iPad away, the child bursts into tears, and the evening is ruined.
The problem isn't a stubborn kid or a harsh parent — it's that every "stop" has to be announced by an adult, on the spot. And whoever announces it is always the villain.
iOS's built-in Screen Time manages a daily total: one hour a day, until it's gone. And how does a child spend it? All at once. Sixty unbroken minutes is a very different thing from three twenty-minute sessions — for the eyes and for the mood.
And when the quota runs out, up pops "ask for more time" — approved, of course, by the parent. Full circle: you're the villain again.
課表的好處：規則說了算，不是人說了算
What a timetable changes: the rules decide, not a person
These apps on Mon/Wed/Fri, those on Tue/Thu/Sat, and Sunday is your call. Like a school timetable: there simply is no swimming class on Tuesday — and kids don't argue with a timetable.
After every 30 minutes of play, the apps rest together for 5 — then unlock on their own, and the next round begins. The word that matters is "own": no adult has to confiscate anything, and no adult has to give it back. The child knows the apps return after the rest, so "stop" is no longer a loss.
💡 The rules run on the system scheduler — apps stay locked even if RestBud is swiped closed.
This is the detail I most wanted to get right. When time is up there's no red warning, no cold countdown — just a gentle sprout shield, and then a recording plays. Yours, up to 25 seconds: "Time for a five-minute break — you can play again after."
The same sentence is an order from a system chime, and a reminder in mum's or dad's voice. The recording lives only on this device — never uploaded, never sent to any speech service.
按下 Record，錄一句你自己的「該休息囉」——時間到播的是這一句。
Tap Record and say your own "time for a break" — that's what plays when time is up.
As usual, the limits up front, before you download:
It manages apps only — individual websites can't be targeted (though a browser can be managed as a whole).
Session limits are daily-cumulative, not continuous-use detection.
With the mute switch on, the voice stays silent — but the screen still locks.
The parental gate (a maths question or 4-digit passcode) is a soft barrier; for older kids, pair it with iOS's "Don't Allow Deleting Apps".
隱私：連我們都看不到孩子用了什麼
Privacy: even we can't see what your child uses
無帳號、無廣告、不收集任何資料——規則、錄音全部留在裝置上。挑 App 用的是 Apple 官方選取器，RestBud 拿到的只是一串不透明代號，不是「孩子用了哪些 App」的清單。想看的話，看不到；因為根本拿不到。
順帶一提：上架時 Apple 要求我們把名稱從 Kids Screen Time 改成 Parental Screen Time——想想也對，這本來就是給家長用的工具，孩子那一側只會看到小芽。
No account, no ads, no data collected — rules and recordings stay on the device. App picking goes through Apple's own selector, and what RestBud receives is a set of opaque tokens, not a readable list of what your child uses. We couldn't peek even if we wanted to; there is nothing to peek at.
A footnote: during review, Apple had us rename it from Kids Screen Time to Parental Screen Time — fair enough. It was always a tool for parents; the child's side only ever sees the sprout.
爸媽備忘錄Parent's reminder 工具能做的是把「停」從大人嘴裡移到課表上，讓爭執少一點；真正的重點還是休息那 5 分鐘裡，你們一起做了什麼。設定一次就忘記它，然後把省下來的力氣拿去陪玩。RestBud 免費、零廣告、不收集任何資料。What a tool can do is move the "stop" from a grown-up's mouth onto a timetable, so there's less to fight about. What actually matters is what you do together in those 5 minutes of rest. Set it up once, forget it, and spend the saved energy playing. RestBud is free, ad-free, and collects nothing.
