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Sri Juneja's avatar

Ok these people are wiser than me. I need to implement these rules for MYSELF.

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Edan Lepucki's avatar

I enjoyed reading these!

I have three kids, 12.5, 8, and 4. My oldest, who's in the 7th grade, has a flip phone. He won't get a smart phone until he's 16 when he drives. I know that is at the extreme end of the spectrum, but I have a couple friends/my sister who is going to try to follow this. I just don't see strong enough evidence that a smart phone is necessary for someone so young. Their brains! Their mental health! I know he needs to be among his peers so I try to give him chances to do that in real life, or with video games a bit (Minecraft).

He and I have a lot of conversations about smart phones. He's basically cool with the rule. One girl at school thinks it's cool he has a flip phone, and I am pretty sure that's his crush, so....

I give him independence in other ways--since the 4th grade he's gone after school to hang with his friends alone--at the library near school and the surrounding neighborhood--and now that he's older I drop him with friends in other areas near us to just walk around, hang out, go for lunch etc. Last year he had a blast eating candy and drinking from a 1-liter soda in an abandoned shopping cart he and his doofus friends found; he got in and they pushed him down the street...and let go. LOL.

I am more worried my daughter (who is 8) will be isolated without a smartphone. But she is also very anxious and has some OCD, and I think it'll add a whole other layer to her mental health issues. So I am going to try to hold strong. We have the conversations now.

I keep telling them not being on social media is a true FLEX.

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