Happy First Day of Summer! For many parents, these summer months are a time to loosen the screen-time reigns and let kids play Pokemon Go, Temple Run and Minecraft as long as they want. Others worry about the impact of too many hours spent on social media, games and videos, often at the cost of more nostalgic summer past times, real or imagined. (Did we all actually climb trees, build forts and pick blueberries?).
But how to manage screen time when you might not even be home to do it? And even if you are a stay-at-home parent, do you have the energy to fight the battle every hour of the day? It’s a challenge for many families, and one that’s generating a host of responses: One Washington D.C. area principal recently offered to pay incoming 8thand 9th graders $100 each if they went screen-free every Tuesday of summer vacation. Another mom recently locked her children’s devices into an offsite storage unit in her quest to experience some digital downtime.
