Summertime☀️Screen Battles and Creating Life Balance
On behalf of every parent ever - we want summer 2020 to be a good one!
Shelter-in-Place is/was so painful.
The world stopped. The childhood experience stopped. We hid in our homes.
Yet summer 2020 brings it's own set of challenges.
When we were growing up summertime was about swimming pools, summer camp and making memories!
For many families, summertime now means something else...
SCREEN TIME BATTLES.
Here are...
3 Helpful Insights and 5 Helpful Action Steps!
Insights
1. Young people who spend seven hours or more a day on screens are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression or anxiety than those who use screens for an hour a day, finds a study published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports.
2. Regarding games like Fortnite, the University of Rochester research found that 'Frustration with Video Games Leads to Aggressive Behavior".
3. Famous researcher Jean Twenge found that screen time is a likely cause of the ongoing surge in teen depression, anxiety, and suicide.
5 Action-Steps To Create Life-Balance
5. Teach Your Teen That Screens Are Like Desserts
Ice cream. Sour Patch Kids. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
Yummy stuff.
Healthy adults understand that desserts are not like regular food. Desserts are special. A treat. Desserts are not for every meal, but only for special occasions.
If eaten too much, desserts can be dangerous.
Food can be addictive. Desserts can harm the body.
Screens are the same way.
They are yummy (lots of dopamine!) but screens need to be limited..and prioritized...and experienced in BALANCE.
In my 20+ years of working with teens, I have concluded that most tweens/teens CANNOT limit themselves.
If you have a teen who can not limit themselves, then...
4. Help Them With Balance By Setting Daily Screen Limits...and Provide Natural Consequences For Breaking A Rule.
Kids need rules, limits and boundaries. There are rules everywhere, so the home should be no different. The home is where kids learn boundaries and obedience.
Rules should be followed.
If a rule is not followed, and there is no consequence, or the consequence is so small and meaningless, then why have the rule at all?
Screen rules should be honored.
Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, and iPhones are now helping with this, and all have built-in parental controls.
Many families have purchased extra support from NetNanny.
Screens are powerful...and addictive. They should be recognized for their power, and if a screen rule a broken it should not be taken lightly.
If you need help with screen addiction, our Coaches at PMT can support your tween/teen and your family break the addiction and move into health.
3. Consider a Summertime Screen FAST.
Maybe it's for 2 weeks. Maybe it's 30 days. Maybe it's over your week-long family summer vacation.
There is research says just one week without screens can reset a teen's mind...and can improve sleep patterns.
2. Help Your Teen To Understand Win/Win.
We at Parenting Modern Teens teach about the power of creating Win/Wins in all of our parenting classes and in our private coaching sessions.
Win/Wins should be a foundation of every parent/teen relationship.
If your teen spends most of their life on a screen...
If your teen doesn't participate in family functions...
If your teen doesn't regularly get outside to spend time with friends..,
If your tween/teen is not exercising...
If your teen doesn't communicate with you...
Then you are in a Win/Lose relationship with your own child/teen. (My free parenting class can help you with this.)
1. Get Your Tween/Teen a Coach.
Our powerful coaching process helps tweens/teens better understand themselves: their passions, their emotions, their gifts, their fears...and why they like screens so much.
Our Coaches give modern teenagers TOOLS to help them balance the screens in their lives and find healthy ways to feel strong, relaxed, confident and successful.
If you need support with your teen or family, you can 1) Subscribe to get more articles and tips 2) Contact us for Coaching 3) Download our free House Rules for Teens PDF or 4) Take our free parenting class!
Stay Strong. Be Close. Teach Wisdom.
Sean Donohue
Family Coach, Founder
Click HERE to go deeper with Sean.
Click HERE to read "Young Men Are Lions - And Need To To Feel Like One."
Click HERE to read “7 Things EVERY Teen Girl Needs to Hear From Her Parents.”
Click HERE for Sean's article, "Why Teens Need EQ Skills".
Click HERE to read Sean's article, "How To Evaluate Your Teen's Emotional Maturity".
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