Amanda Idleman
1. Organize Your Day and Create Tech-Free Time
One unavoidable reality is that technology is a necessary part of most adults’ days. Most of us parents aren’t just scrolling our phones for fun; we have work to do. A tip that has helped me is to create times in my day that I intentionally let my kids know I have work to do, so they know that is why I am using my phone or computer. I pledge to be tech-free and fully present to engage with my kids in other parts of the day.
I feel much less guilty about replying to emails and text messages if it does not interrupt the time that my kids need me to be engaged. I don’t want them to feel like they are second to whoever needs me on the phone.
2. Give Your Phone a Home
A useful tip to help you avoid the urge to check your phone constantly is to give your phone a home that is not on you. We have a little shelf in our kitchen that our phones live in. When my phone is not in my pocket, I am way less inclined to spend time just scrolling Facebook while my kids play.
My phone lives in its home while I cook, when we eat, and during our tech-free times of the day. This helps me avoid the temptation to check out everyone’s Instagram stories 17 million times in a day (which I always regret doing anyways).
3. Turn Off Push Notifications
Do you know what can so quickly take my attention off my kids and onto my phone? That little ding that comes when you get a notification! And guess what – my kids know what it means too!
The fewer of those enticing dings to get you distracted, the BETTER! Every time someone posts their stories, I don’t need to know. My phone likes to tell me when all of these things happen, and as soon as I start down the rabbit hole of checking out one person’s new post, I find how quickly I have wasted ten minutes on Facebook not being productive or present at all.
We need to be the boss of our phones. Silence all the unnecessary fuss, so you only hear that ding when you need to know what is happening.
4. Fill the Time You Would Play on Your Phone with Another Activity
I get that there can be some very long days at home, especially when your kids are young. Sometimes your phone is the only access you have to the outside world. A way to stop your phone from sucking all the free time out of the day is to replace that wasted time with more intentional activities.
Identify times of the day that you are most tempted to check out and get pulled into the vortex that is the internet and begin to fill it with more valuable activities that you can do with your kids.
5. Model How to Have Healthy Technology Boundaries for Your Kids
One of the most important parts of all this is for us as parents to model how to maintain proper boundaries with technology for our kids. Technology, I think, is one of the most difficult things to navigate as a parent today! I can’t tell you how many times a day I worry my kids have watched too much TV, played too many video games, or that I have not been as present as I should be with them because I was consumed with being productive online.
I encourage you to take some time and think about what your vision of healthy screen time for your home would look like. Then start putting boundaries in place to help you achieve this vision. Just remember, none of us are perfect at this!
