How to (Screen-Free) Parent

There were a couple of recent news stories about parents being so concerned about the amount of time their kids were spending on tablets and phones that they were hiring screen consultants or screen-free coaches to help them.

I, too, would like to offer you my services. First off, despite the tongue-and-cheekiness this sort of situation surely calls for, I want to make a serious point: it IS legitimately hard to screen-free (or even screen-limited) parent. 

It’s just so easy to plop a tablet in a kid’s hands at a young age and focus on what you need to or want to do. They’re happy, you’re happy, -- it’s just so easy. Too easy. Screen-limited or free parenting is a microcosm of all of parenting. The easy way is often not the best way. Stuffing a kid full of jelly beans to appease them may work, but there’s excessive collateral damage: spoiled kids, cavities, and diabetes not to mention a monthly jelly bean expenditure that can’t be healthy. 

I can hear some parents saying, look, the kid’s either going to be playing with Legos in the real world or playing with virtual blocks on a tablet so it’s just a modern version of the same old parenting toy standard. 

However, saying, “it’s time to put the screen away” or “it’s time to put the Legos away” produce quite different reactions. At a minimum one is met with far more resistance or attitude thereafter. Why? Because they are NOT the same thing.

The screen-free coaches charge up to $200 per hour to teach you how to parent without screens. I’m going to teach you to do it for free as a public service. Here’s my unpatented method:

Step 1: Prepare to work hard and sacrifice your time and desires.
Step 2: Don’t give your little kids tablets and phones.
Step 3: Do your job and be a parent. This means not outsourcing your role by diverting their attention using screens all day.
Note: Things can technically stop here, but modern parents probably want more so...

Step 4: Get creative and help kids explore the non-screened world by venturing out into nature.
Step 5: Take advantage of modern non-screen related innovations. For instance, did you know they make 50-packs of water balloons that fill simultaneously AND TIE THEMSELVES?! There’s no excuse people; being a hands-on parent isn’t any harder than it’s ever been and might actually be even a little easier.
Step 6: Move the goal post. Instead of play being mostly passive, help them get involved in physical or mental activities that require them to actually do something. Kids have great imaginations and can learn to entertain themselves quickly once the constraints of what entertainment is are loosened. The more time they are away from a screen the more this reinforcing cycle will be strengthened. 

Our generation either slipped into overuse of screen time accidentally, slid into it thinking it’s no big deal, or walked into thinking it’s good or particularly useful. If screen-time coaching it going to continue to be a thing, then I’d say we’re trying to hit the pause button. 

I think this is a good thing but you don’t need a screen-time coach to do it. Just disconnect and go back to basics -- realizing it’s going to be harder, even harder if screen-time living has been going on for a while. 

And if you must, just must hire a screen-time coach: give me a call.