Our Kids Are Listening, Even When They Roll Their Eyes.
We have to keep talking.
For better or worse, my kids have me, The Screentime Consultant, as their mother. Recently, my 11-year-old daughter was really upset with me for a variety of reasons (including: sleepover aftermath. Ugh. IYKYK).
Part of what tumbled out in her frustration was the claim that “none of my friends have a mom like you” and that when she tries to explain to her friends our reasons for not giving her a personal smart device, she said, “They don’t understand.”
She’s right. They don’t. I empathized with her. Acknowledged her feelings. Told her it was okay for her to not like our rules. That different families focus on different things and it made sense that her friends might not understand the way we talk about screentime in our house.
And then I told her: “But you are going to have to trust me on this one…
“Sure,” I said. “I can offer that.” And then I told her, “But I have to be careful with how I approach this with other parents. If you think your friends don’t understand all of this, how might their parents feel when I bring this up?”
Read the rest of this story on Emily’s website (linked here)!
Emily Cherkin, M.A.Ed., is a tech-intentional parent, educator, speaker, writer, and founder of The Screentime Consultant, LLC, and her work has been featured in local and national news, including in The New York Times and on The Today Show and Good Morning, America.
