No TikTok? No problem. Here’s why you shouldn’t rush to buy your child a phone.

Carli Pierson writing in USA Today with some thoughtful advice to parents:

“Phones and kids should be an ongoing conversation in our homes. We should be talking about the dangers of addiction. We need to teach them that obsessing over other people’s lives, or comparing themselves with another person they may or may not know, isn’t healthy or helpful. We want to show them that being able to strike up, hold and gracefully walk away from a conversation is an art that needs practice. And they need to understand that being bored is OK.”

And she goes on to suggest that

“…kids and parents need to do more handholding and hugging, more talking and discussing, more daydreaming. We need to get back to resting in the grass and experiencing that peaceful feeling of watching the clouds float by. And we need fewer handheld objects to distract and entertain us. Life is short, childhood is even shorter. Let’s work harder to save our kids from a childhood spent inside a phone.”

CNN, 5/19/24