Wait Until 8th

I was recently on the CNN Terms of Service podcast as part of my volunteer work with the nonprofit Wait Until 8th to discuss with host Clare Duffy how parents are pledging to wait until high school to give their children a smartphone. Check out the podcast episode here: https://lnkd.in/gmu_2PMf We discussed why smartphones are experience blockers for kids, how parents can help coach their children to have a healthy relationship with technology, and why communal problems require communal solutions. In my day job, I understand the power of technology to connect and share information. But as a parent, I know sharing that power needs to be carefully considered and coached. If you’re interested in learning more about Wait Until 8th, please visit https://lnkd.in/gsBXAUqW

Hooray! More Moms and Dads are delaying the smartphone until the end of 8th grade with the Wait Until 8th pledge. Most kids gets smartphones in 4th or 5th grade. Waiting a few more years makes a difference! We have so many new schools with active pledges!?? Once a grade at a school hits 10 pledges, the pledge is active, and we link you up! Congrats to these pledges activated this week! Check out our new schools in our photos of this post. For a full list of active pledges, go to our website! Do you want to see your school on this list? Sign the pledge on our website and then rally friends to join you. Change the norm today when kids get phones in your community. ?????????? ? Delay the smartphone until the end of 8th grade! ? Get a basic phone if you need to get in touch before. We have a list on our website. ? Start slowly when you do say YES. Put smart limits in place! Tips on our website! ? Delay social media until 16 at least! ? Keep phones out of the bedrooms! ? Advocate for phones to be away for the day at school!

Let's go! More parents are delaying the smartphone! We have so many new schools with active pledges! Once a grade at a school hits 10 pledges, the pledge is active, and we link you up with other parents from your child's school. Congrats to these pledges activated this week! Brayton, Summit, NJ 2nd Plymouth River, Hingham, MA, 2nd, 4th, Selwyn, Charlotte, NC, kinder, 3rd Riverdale Country School, Bronx, NY 3rd Sequoyah School, Pasadena, CA, 3rd , 4th Espiritu Santo Catholic School, Safety Harbor, FL, kinder Wilmette Central, Wilmette, IL, 3rd Blessed Sacrament, Washington, DC 2nd , 4th Washington Elementary, Boise, ID, 5th Marion Bedwell, Bernardsville, NJ, 1st 3rd Falmouth Elementary, ME, 2nd , 3rd Bronxville Elementary, Bronxville, NY, Kinder, 1st, 2nd , 3rd, 4th Long Lots, Westport, CT, kinder, 1st, 2nd Bernard Zell Ashe Emet, Chicago, IL, 4th Indian Trails, Highland Park, IL, kinder Birney, San Diego, CA, 2nd Cider Mill, Wilton, CT, 3rd Heathcote, Scarsdale, NY, kinder, 2nd Lakeway, Austin, TX 2nd Wolf Springs, Overland Park, KS, 2nd Bennett Day School, Chicago, IL, 3rd Bloom Elementary, Louisville, KY, Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd Bradford, Montclair, NJ, 2nd Calvary Day, Winston Salem, NC, 5th Conover Road Primary, Colts Neck, NJ, Kindergarten, 2nd Joseph Sears School, Kenilworth, IL, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Green Farms, Westport, CT 1st Garrett Park, Kensington, MD, 5th Hill, Austin, TX, 3rd Hyde Park Baptist, Austin, TX, 3rd Trinity Episcopal, Charlotte, NC, 3rd Oyster Adams, Washington, DC, 3rd Timber Ridge, Marietta, GA, Kindergarten St. Aloysisus, Baton Rouge, LA, 3rd Seattle Country Day, WA, 4th Hindley, Darien, CT, Kindergarten, 3rd, 5th William H Rowe, Yarmouth , ME 1st McPherson, Chicago, IL 2nd Trinity Academy of Raleigh, NC, 2nd Brearley, NY, NY, 3rd Goldwood Primary, Rocky River, OH, 2nd Visitation, Kansas City, MO, kindergarten Academy of Sacred Heart, New Orleans, LA, 2nd Lincoln Hubbard, Summit, NJ, 1st, 3rd St. Agnes School, Arlington, VA 3rd Phillips Brooks, Menlo Park, 2nd Zeeland Christian, Zeeland, MI, kindergarten, 2nd Saugatuck, Westport, CT, Kindergarten Do you want to see your school on this list? Sign the pledge!

When Raymond Dolphin became assistant principal of a middle school in Connecticut 2 years ago, it was clear to him that the kids were not all right. The problem was smartphones. Students were using the devices in class, despite a rule against it. Social media was exacerbating nearly every conflict among students. When Dolphin walked the hallways or surveyed the cafeteria, he invariably saw heads bent over screens. So in December, Dolphin did something unusual: He banned them. The experiment at Illing Middle School sparked objections from students and some parents, but it has already generated profound and unexpected results. Dolphin likened prohibiting cellphones to curbing consumption of sugary foods. “In a matter of months, you start feeling better,” he said. What unfolded at the school reflects a broader struggle underway in education as some administrators turn to increasingly drastic measures to limit the reach of a technology that is both ubiquitous and endlessly distracting. Scores of schools across the country have taken similar steps to remove cellphones altogether rather than rely on rules around their use. At Illing middle school, students are required to store phones in pouches made by Yondr. The pouches stay locked until dismissal preventing student from sneaking use during the school day. On student shared she was mad at first. As time passed, her feelings have shifted. “You can focus more” on classes, she said. These days she sometimes forgets that she has her phone with her. Teachers who were initially skeptical that the pouches would work say they’ve been transformative. It’s not as though Illing had allowed cellphones in class previously. Like three-quarters of all U.S. schools, it didn’t. But such policies rely on individual teachers to carry them out. Last year, the number of U.S. schools using the pouches rose to 2,000. Parents, let's get more schools to get phones out of the school day. Check out the Phone-Free Schools Movement and Away for the Day for more resources!

Join Leah & I in delaying smartphones for kids with the?Wait Until 8th pledge. No one uses social media more than I do. Kids do not need to be part of it. When you sign the pledge, Wait Until 8th connects you with other families who are delaying smartphones from your child's school. https://lnkd.in/gVuEDHv9 #Smartphones #ChildDevelopment #SocialMedia #LinkedInSM

Can we save our children from smartphones? Great OP-ED by Peggy Noonan in the WSJ. Highlights include: There’s a funny thing that happens in a nation’s thoughts. At some point everyone knows something is true, and talks about it with each other. The truth becomes a cliché before it becomes actionable. Then a person of high respect, a good-faith scholar who respects data, say, comes forward with evidence proving what everyone knows, and it is galvanizing. It hits like a thunderclap, and gives us all permission to know what we know and act on it. That is my impression of Jonathan Haidt’s new book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness,” that it has broken through and is clearing the way for parents’ groups and individuals to move forward together on an established idea. He tells the story of what happened to Generation Z, which he defines as those born after 1995. (They followed the millennials, born 1981-95.) Older members of Gen Z entered puberty while four technological trends were converging. One was the arrival of the iPhone in 2007, another the continuing spread of broadband internet. The third, starting in 2009, was “the new age of hyper-viralized social media,” with likes, retweets and shares. In 2010 came the front-facing camera on smartphones, which “greatly expanded the number of adolescents posting carefully curated photos and videos of their lives for their peers and strangers not just to see, but to judge.” This became “the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets that called them away from the people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addictive, unstable and . . . unsuitable for children and adolescents.” Girls moved their social lives onto social media. Boys burrowed into immersive video games, Reddit, YouTube and pornography. Mr. Haidt suggests four reforms. Check them out in our post photos

Sometimes, as a working mom, I feel like I don’t have a single brain cell left. And when it comes to my kids and technology? I just don’t have any mental energy left. And yet, it’s one of our biggest arguments and a huge source of pain. ??There are so many questions surrounding phones, screens, and social media. And now, Florida has proposed legislation to BAN social media for children under 16!??????? I’ve invited my friend, Brooke Shannon and founder of Wait Until 8th , a movement to encourage? children to hold out from getting a smart phone until 8th grade, to the conversation. In the most recent episode of my podcast, we discuss safe guardrails and so much more. Honestly — it helped me make sense of SO MUCH for me and my kids. If you listen to it — let me know what you think! #workingmoms #workingmom #workingparent #workingparents