I can still remember mornings with toddlers like they were yesterday. The logistics of a morning routine seemed simple enough — breakfast in, warm clothes on, and out the door. Yet any parent can tell you that achieving these outcomes with a two-year-old is far from simple. “No!!! Noooooo!!!!” I remember my 2-year-old screaming as… Read More →
“I feel like I am back to my peak pandemic habits all over again,” a friend recently shared. He went on, “I am checking my phone all the time.” “That makes sense,” I responded with a sigh. “There is so much going on.” “The problem is that I feel like I need to be online… Read More →
When asked how much time this generation of kids spends on their phones, most of us would simply answer, “A lot.” Research backs this up. We have lots of data about average screen time and trends related to screen use. Yet rough measures of “screen time” only tell us part of the story. Learning more… Read More →
“I need you to get going!” I told my middle schooler. This reminder came at the end of instructions about what-to-do-next in the unstructured day ahead. My pre-teen, more engaged in a podcast than my game plan, didn’t budge. I considered increasing volume, providing more information, or adding in some exasperated sighs for emphasis. Before… Read More →
“How are you feeling about going back to school?” I asked my youngest over breakfast. “I’m excited!” he responded quickly. I was grateful for the enthusiasm but realized that there might be more to the story. Sure enough, the same child was on the verge of emotional collapse five minutes later. He was beside himself… Read More →
“Here is what I know I don’t want,” a high school junior recently shared. “ A summer of scrolling. A little bit is fine – you know, to just relax and check out for a bit. But I don’t want to get lost there all summer.” This young person’s reflection comes at just the right time for… Read More →
“I am just going to delay as long as I can,” a parent recently shared with me. She added, “I just don’t even want to deal with social media until high school.” “Yes, I can relate,” I replied thinking of my own middle schooler at home and my intermittent impulses to move deep into the… Read More →
To say that there is a lot of attention right now on teenage social media use is an understatement. Yet all of the attention hasn’t necessarily produced a clear and coherent path for parents. Instead, we continue to experience significant whiplash between headlines that say, “Screen time is fine!” on one hand, and, “Screen time… Read More →
“I know that I want to raise an independent kid who eventually goes off into the world,” a parent recently shared. “But I just don’t like this in between part.” “What part?” I asked. “Oh just the part where they wrench themselves away from the family and treat me like an unwanted roommate,” they replied… Read More →
In the past two years every major organization dedicated to adolescent health and development has sounded the alarm on mental health. The latest CDC data describes the crisis in detail. In 2021, more than four in ten students felt persistently sad or hopeless and nearly one-third experienced poor mental health. In the wake of this… Read More →
