I have these fancy neighbours who live the same exact apartment as us, except they are one floor below.
It sucks so bad. They are moving to the other side of the world. Not only our are kids the best of friends, but over the years this family has become our Friday nights, emergency stash, and our shelter-in-place. They have become Family, with a capital F.
But here’s the thing about THEM, they are the exact opposite of US.
However, in this polarity is where we became better people pushing and challenging each other to better parents, friends, and neighbors.
Let me paint the picture this way…
- In our apartments, they have an entire bureau dedicated to the various commemorative and decorative flatware for every occasion… In that same location of our apartment, we have stupidly large flat screen TV.
- On any given Saturday, they are all at the soccer pitch with parents cheering like maniacs at the side lines… We are all separately pursuing personal hobbies: sailing, fencing, coding, writing, and design.
- For a relaxing evening, they would invite four couples over for a dinner… We would rather watch a Miyazaki Marathon in our PJs.
- To keep track of appointments, my friend has a specially designed paper diary that God forbid if she lost the world would crumble… I keep track of everything in on my iPhone with each kid’s schedule linked to their iPads, color-coded.
- I never knew what a tablescape was before I met these people, and they never owned a gaming console.
So when my friend struggled with the coming of age decision about whether or not to get her son a smartphone for his birthday, she asked me for help.
Being that my son was two years older, I had struggled mightily as well. I shared with her a decision-making matrix to help ease my fears of the bringing that weapon of mass distraction into my son’s space. We talked through the pros and cons, and contemplated her son’s maturity with a third party perspective that only a friend can do.
In the end she decided that he was ready, but only with a plan that educated him on the power and privilege of his new device. I showed her how she could unlock features of the smartphone after he responsibly demonstrated self-control. I set up the Family Apple Screentime for her to help her kids track their screentime minutes. I coached her on how to talk to her kids about safe chatting with friends.
Through this very personal journey of understanding the place for screentime in her family, something miraculous happened for her and her family. The dark ghost of screentime threat was lifted. As we peeled back the layers of screentime discomfort, we both realised that we were freeing ourselves from a parenting fear of an unknown. And by claiming that fear, we could put action, connection, and purpose to it.
This is the point when my fancy friend turned to me and said, “You need to tell more people about this! More parents need this fresh perspective on screentime!”
And that, my new friends, is how Infinite Screentime was born.
I am your squadmate in screentime!
We can’t fight this technology tide alone. We need each other as fellow caregivers, mentors, and guides for our families. Technology is a language for our kids. And screentime is the medium. Personally, I have realised I was not properly preparing them for their new reality by being dictatorial about their technology. Are you ready to face your fears too?
IF YOU ARE…
I want to you to join me LIVE on my Facebook Group to learn with me about all of the parts of Screentime. I promise, you will learn something.
