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Ten Ways to Get Kids Off Screens
The author of Childhood Unplugged says resistance is NOT futile
As readers of this page know, I occasionally ask writers from various backgrounds to contribute their thoughts. This week’s essay comes from Katherine Johnson Martinko, the author of a new book called Childhood Unplugged: Practical Advice to Get Kids Off Screens and Find Balance. The book is just out from New Society Publishers.
If you are a parent to a school-aged kid, then there is a good chance you’re dealing with what nearly every other parent in the world is dealing with right now. You may be fending off the introduction of the smartphone or in the midst of “managing” its influence on your kid. It’s not a fun job, and I feel your pain. Digital media has made parenting hard in strange new ways.
As the author of a new book called Childhood Unplugged: Practical Advice to Get Kids Off Screens and Find Balance, and, perhaps even more relevantly, as the mother of three kids, I can empathize with this ongoing struggle to manage digital media in the family. I would like to offer some advice, honed during years of personal experience and professional research.
1. Just Say No
Kids have so few years to inhabit the play-filled, imaginative state that makes childhood special. Don’t rush…
