Parents Who Fight

You won't want to miss Sarah Siegand of Parents Who Fight on Pastor Allen Jackson's Culture & Christianity Podcast! https://lnkd.in/gpkjgKhC

We’ve been in this fight for TEN YEARS as co-conspirators, but never crossed paths in person with Chris from Protect Young Eyes until last week! We are so grateful for the passion and perseverance he’s shown in protecting kids and we honor his work as a pioneer in this space. Great conversations and so much gratitude for the momentum we’ve witnessed in this movement lately. The fight to protect kids will never really be "finished", and folks, we all have a lot of fight left in us still!! https://lnkd.in/gBFHrEuR - Parents Who Fight https://lnkd.in/gisTQMWV - Protect Young Eyes https://lnkd.in/gqakzRwD - PYE on LinkedIn

This week we celebrated T E N Y E A R S of supporting families and protecting kids! We were thrust into this fight when our kids were 1st & 3rd grade, now we are a few months away from our youngest graduating and an empty nest on the horizon! We could share countless memories of elementary school cafeteria and church sanctuary presentations, but the best highlight reel of PWF by far is seeing the fruit in our boys’ lives. To all the parents out there in the thick of it saying NO and WAIT to the technology your kids are begging for, want to encourage you not to give up! Take the long view and do what is best for them, spiritually, mentally, and physically. Find your partners! We didn’t do it perfect while we were blazing this trail, but we had so many friends and partners alongside us. Our church community walking together in this counterculture low-tech approach made a huge difference! (Pictured here from 2024 is our oldest son about to go on live national Fox News about exploitation on social media, and our youngest son encouraging parents to wait on giving their kids smartphones at one of our presentations.)

This is an amazing opportunity for churches to do something significant in large numbers to increase spiritual, social, and emotional health. https://wix.to/BIagl1U #digitalfast

New iOS 18 update has the teenagers customizing their phone screens and making them fancy using the new user interface tools. I’m experimenting too, but the opposite… making my phone more utility and less enticing with grayscale mode (this was available before, but a little more obvious to get to now). Anyone else feeling the irony of how much effort we have to go to in order to limit the super capabilities of a *very* expensive device. I would rather have something that costs way less and can do way less. I don’t need or want all of this “magic” in my life . #killthenoise

Teenagers on Instagram will now be defaulted to much stricter safety settings, something parents have been pleading for for YEARS. But y'know... there's always a catch. https://wix.to/De8cYoF #socialmedia

We don't only do christian church presentations exclusively, as we have many allies from various perspectives, and we are very willing to help all those who want to join the fight to stay tech-intentional & keep kids safe online & offline! However, as Christian parents who have raised our kids in a thriving church community, we have experienced the rich benefits of walking in sacred unity with other parents on this low-tech and slow-tech path. These are our people. We’ve been fighting for each other’s families for over 20 years. There is no question that this kind of Kingdom partnership is a huge advantage in all things related to parenting. One of the key elements in @jonathanhaidt’s book #TheAnxiousGeneration is the power of what he calls “collective action,” where parents stand in solidarity on unpopular strategies to do what is healthy and right for their kids. This is how we have lived in our church community for two decades. Haidt recognizes this kind of community advantage in churches and has offered encouragement for religious communities to harness their unity to lead the reversal of what he calls the “phone-based childhood.” As we have prayed about what OUR path should look like, we continually sense the Lord drawing us back to the church. Spiritual health and discipleship are not topics many are equipped to talk about in an online safety training session, but they are at the forefront of our hearts and minds. And we hope they are on the hearts and minds of every pastor out there who wants to impact this generation. We are fully available to bring these spiritual health and discipleship trainings and talks to church communities around our nation and the globe! It’s time for the church to rise and lead the tech-intentional rebellion. TO READ MORE ABOUT OUR TRANSITION TO FOCUS ON CHURCH COMMUNITIES, READ OUR RECENT BLOG. https://lnkd.in/eQQjw9WE #TechIntentionalChurch #techrebellion #makingdisciples

Nearly 9 out of 10 Christian parents want the partnership and support of church leaders to help them know how to approach sensitive conversations (technology, pornography, etc.). Barna Group has a great research report called “Guiding Children” which highlights how parents and ministry leaders view the important work of helping kids discover the Bible, navigate technology, and follow Jesus. Friends, this is the heartbeat of PWF. We can continue to go house to house (and we will… helped two awesome families recently to get a strong tech strategy in place)… but there is an entire generation whose spiritual health has been decimated by social media and other addictive tech. We need more church leaders in this movement to impact multitudes of families at a time, because church communities are uniquely positioned to walk strategically together and actually CREATE CHANGE. We are SUPER excited to be part of an initiative at World Outreach Church over the next few months to go deep on the theme: WE WILL NOT STOP PROTECTING OUR KIDS. This is going to be SIX weekly sessions of teaching, coaching, strategy, discussion, Q&A, equipping, and a CALL TO ARMS for parents, grandparents, and ministry leaders on Raising Spiritual Champions in a Tech-Saturated Culture. More info to come! If you’re near #murfreesboroTN it will be an opportunity you won’t want to miss (childcare provided). #fightingforkids #raisingspiritualchampions #parentswhofight

Church & School Leaders, Parents… You know, there is an ocean-sized mix of problems facilitated by social media, smart phones, & addictive tech overload!! :: Parents Who Fight is here to help! :: https://lnkd.in/gBFHrEuR