Are you happy with the amount of time your child spends on a screen? Are you pleased with how your son spends his summer break on the couch, in the air conditioning, racking up more kills in Fortnite? Are you okay with how much time your daughter spends scrolling through a world that you don’t…
Has your child ever thrown a controller when playing a video game? Has he ever hit a sibling because of his gaming frustration? Do you fear what your child will do if you tell him to turn off the game? You’re not alone. Games are not a neutral activity. They stimulate the release of neurochemicals,…
Wondering if your kids should be on social media? Let’s start by examining what social media was designed for: marketing, entertainment and to keep our attention (i.e.be addictive). One thing it wasn’t created for? Kids. As more and more kids and teens use social media for longer periods of time, we are seeing the negative…
How Video Gaming Can Sabotage Sports By Melanie Hempe, BSN, Founder of ScreenStrong Why is it so easy for a boy to get sucked into gaming and it is so hard for him to stick to a real sport? One answer: video gaming is easy and sports are difficult. In other words, kids like…
Why Every Boy (Even Your Gamer) Is An Athlete By Melanie Hempe, BSN, Founder of ScreenStrong Not every child needs to play sports, right? After all, maybe sports just aren’t his thing. Maybe he isn’t gifted in sports like he is at gaming and coding. Sports can also be a huge time commitment on…
By Melanie Hempe, Founder of ScreenStrong – January 15, 2019 PHOTO CREDIT: iStock Parents no longer need to rely solely on their intuition when it comes to the best solutions for balancing their kids’ screen usage. Last year brought more concrete evidence and more science to back up the reasons kids are better off when parents…
Many parents struggle over the perfect time for their child to have a smartphone, but are we making the decision harder than it should be? After all, our kids will gladly tell us when they think the time is right. But before giving into their demands and changing their world forever, start with a few…
You have been arguing with your kids again about their video game hours, and they can’t seem to put their phones down even to talk about what they want for Christmas. You dread the once-loved Christmas break because you know that the battle between you and their screens will be a hard one, and you…
“The contract experiment was a failure at our house… She has proven that she can’t manage it on her own; the contract made it worse.” —Mom of a teen girl Building strong digital citizens does not begin with a smartphone contract. You (nervously) just gave your teen his first smartphone.* Now you are…
When it comes to kids and screens, we hear the myth of the forbidden fruit a lot. Parents ask, “Well, if I don’t let my son game now, won’t he just binge on it later?” Or, “If my daughter isn’t allowed on social media now, won’t she just crave it more later?” This theory of…