Member-only story
A Parent’s Guide to Digital Wellness
Developing a family culture to combat digital overload
Our daily lives are a constant barrage of beeps, boops, buzzes, and dings. Our iPhone cries for attention, our laptop chirps a new email alert, and we shout at Alexa demanding to know today’s weather. We shove boots onto unwilling, tablet-holding toddlers and make multiple attempts to gain our screen-glued teenager’s attention. Mornings like these are the perfect storm for an existential crisis. What are we even doing?
Technological advances have undoubtedly made our lives easier in many ways. Long car rides might be a bit more relaxing with our middle schooler engaged in a video game or our 5-year-old watching Moana for the hundredth time. Video conferencing software allowed many across the country to attend school or work and have some sort of socialization during one of the many peaks of COVID-19.
Family schedules are coordinated and streamlined with only a few clicks. Smartphones give us a sense of security, knowing our children can contact us in an emergency. It isn’t all bad.
And then come the mornings of struggle over toddler tablets. Or the fights over dinner when our tween can’t pull away from TikTok. Or concern over our teenager staying up all night playing video games only to be falling asleep in class…
