Screenagers Blog

I have been thinking a lot about going back to school, and recently, I listened to the behavioral scientist BJ Fogg uses the term “skill them up” when talking about how to help someone activate and reach a goal in their life. Today I share three key skills that can benefit our kids and students greatly.

Parenting is inherently anxiety-provoking. But feeling anxious at times is different than letting anxiety control the way we parent. Today I share some true stories that demonstrate this and offer ideas on how we can prevent anxiety from taking hold of our own wheels.

Today’s TTT is about whether including the topic of porn in sex education should happen or not is a keen way of instigating dialogue with tweens and teens about porn. And remember, smartphones are unfortunately an easy portal into porn, so nudging ourselves to talk more frequently about porn is so important — these are not easy conversations to have.

Today I share how my husband and I got to a better place with our communication conflict and why we shared the details with our kids. Life is not about riding horses off into the sunset but rather riding elephants into plain view.

In today’s Tech Talk Tuesday, I explore how to open a conversation with your kids and teens about what to do with the steady stream of YouTube videos with influencers giving them so many mixed messages.

A few weeks ago a dear friend shared with me about her screen-free family Sundays with her 3 kids. When Jamie started Screen-Free Sundays, they planned to just try it out for a month so she wouldn’t feel overwhelmed by the experiment. I also talk with a mom in Alaska who prioritized reading in her family in all sorts of ways — and keeping screens at bay when they read. Hear how the experiments have gone.

Recently, I spoke with someone who has decided to really cut down on their social media use and news feeds because they saw how it was impacting their mental state. I have written in the past and podcasted about how we help our kids recognize disinformation, but today I’m discussing managing the quantity of “bad news.”

Today I share strategies to help parents in conflict over screen time limits. I know, generally, it is important to have a united front for our kids about things like rules, but what about the benefits of bringing some conflict out into the open at times?

Given that we are halfway through 2021, I thought it was a good time to share the top read Tech Talk Tuesdays in 2021 thus far. Whether it is to catch up on any you’ve missed or reread something you found helpful before, this list of the top picks is a good way to go.

I love that during summer, there’s a relief from the complexities of school-based social stressors, and it can be a good time to bring up some of the more awkward conversations of parenting. So let's take this relative downtime of summer to bring up the topic of what makes for loving, kind intimate relationships. And yes, this may well get into sexuality. Today I give you tips on how to address this.

Last week I mentioned in the blog that youth often enjoy doing self-assessment questionnaires. Well, today it is about the fact that they — and, us, as well, appreciate a fun, competitive quiz. I have developed The Digital Age Quiz, tested it with youth, and it has been a hit. The key is to make it a competition. This quiz is great for everyone in your family, or group of any kind, even a summer camp group!

“Pre-commitment” is the term that comes to mind as I sit down to share some summer-fun ideas. In behavioral psychology, pre-commitment is all about doing an action, such as creating a contract with yourself before doing something, to increase the chance you actually do that something. Read on for some ideas to boost summer fun.