On this episode of The Fresh Start Family Show, Wendy chats with Andrea Davis who is a mom of 5 and former secondary education teacher turned screen time expert on a mission to help parents worry less about tech and connect more with their kids. She founded the company Better Screen Time to support parents and is the author of the book Creating a Tech-Healthy Family.
We all want to protect our kids online and keep them safe while helping them develop healthy limits and intrinsic control around screens. And while most of us have heard of the concept of a Tech Agreement or Tech Plan, many of us have no idea how to actually get started.
Tune in as Wendy & Andrea chat about 3 Steps to Help us with Creating a Family Tech Plan:
- Connect – find things to do together off screen to keep the relationship strong
- Model – show our kids what healthy limits around screens looks like
- Conversations – help our kids know the why of our limits and educate them about the potential digital dangers and effects of time spent online
Episode Highlights:
- Family meetings can include where, what, when and how long screens will be used
- Connecting with our kids sets the foundation to allow us to influence our kids
- Modeling healthy limits to not takes screens in the bathroom & bedroom and at the dinner table helps our kids follow suit
- Communicate with our kids what we are doing online so there is transparency
- Create some limits around screens where we are device free each day in front of our kids
- Have compassion on our kids and ourselves about screen use – it is a real challenge of our time
- Use guilt to help navigate areas to keep working on and small changes to make toward our tech goals
- Talk to our kids about time spent, content viewed, how we are affected by screens, the 3 C’s concepts, digital dangers, and what are their values they can honor online too
Resources Mentioned:
Where to find Andrea:
Instagram
Facebook
Better Screen Time Community Website
freshtartfamilyonline.com/kidsafephones – check out all the safe devices available to your family through our partners at Troomi & Gabb!!
