Oct 2, 2018
True story...one day, on a mom fail DAY, I allowed my sons to play video games for HOURS. Finally after I finished whatever project it was that had distracted me from paying attention to my boys, I told my boys to get off their devices. As soon as my boys got off, it was like a fog had been lifted from them. They told me they were starving and had to go to the bathroom. They had been so sucked into their devices that they had completely stopped paying attention to their basic needs. My boys could literally could spend their ENTIRE day playing video games on their devices if I didn’t regulate what they were doing. I HATE regulating screen time! I am constantly looking for ideas to regulate their screen time. I was so excited to find Andrea Davis and her website, “Better Screen Time.” Andrea is the mother of five children. Through both research and her own family’s experiences she has created a great resource for parents to learn about managing screen time and cell phone use. In this week’s episode we get the opportunity to learn from Andrea. She talks to us about strategies for regulating screen time and helping our family buy into regulating their own screen time. Here is what we talked about:
- What family life event lead Andrea to create her website, “Better Screen Time.”
- Andrea’s tree frog experience and how it relates to screens in our home.
- How to get your family to buy into controlling their screen time use.
- Taking back cell phones when you feel like your child isn’t ready.
- The value of teaching our kids the WHY.
- What a Family Tech Think Tank is.
- How to start a family tech think tank
- How to get the whole family to buy into a new screen time plan.
- Topics to discuss with your family about monitoring screen time.
- Teaching kids to come up with their own consequences.
- Managing the amount of time your kids are on screens.
- When is a child ready for a cell phone.
- When and how to transition a child from a flip phone to a smartphone.
- Teaching kids the dangers of social media.
- What “technoference” is and how to avoid it.
Mom Squad Challenge: Schedule a time on the calendar when you can have your first Family Tech Think Tank.