Screens of SummerI’ve been counting down school days for a least a month—ever since my son informed me one Tuesday that his lunch account was now -$7.42, and he needed black pants and shoes for tonight’s band concert (What? You have a band concert tonight?). Maybe if I wasn’t dividing my time between band concerts and lacrosse/water polo/soccer games, I’d have time to go online and settle up his hot lunch account. Or better yet—pack him a sandwich!

But though I’m half dragging, half pushing myself to the finish line (which happens to be 11:35 a.m. on June 10) there’s something I’m dreading, too: The Screen Questions (which I’m guessing will begin at approximately 12:47 on the same day):

  • Can I watch an episode this afternoon?
  • Can I go play video games at Jack’s house?
  • Does Snapchat count as “screen time”?
  • Can Lydia and Olivia come over and rent a movie with me tonight?

You know those moving sidewalks at the airport? The transition from school to summer is like stepping off one of those. It feels like we’re going so slow! There’s extra time and no one’s quite sure how to fill it. About two hours into summer, I know I’ll be tempted to cave in and say yes to all the screens: Big and bigger screens, with pocket sized screens in between. Morning, noon, and night screens.

But I also know that screens can take our summer and swallow it whole. And this definitely isn’t what I want. So, as I prepare to manage the many screens of summer, I’ve got three guidelines that I think will help:

[tweetthis display_mode=”button_link”] As we manage the many screens of summer, here are 3 guidelines that will help. [/tweetthis]

1. Summer Isn’t Like I Remember

I often find myself wanting to recreate the summers I experienced as a teen. I’d love for my kids to have a screen-free summer. But like it or not, screens are here to stay. Social media has changed our way of life, and there’s no use pretending otherwise.

2. Change and Overstimulation Creates Stress

We usually think of older people (not teens) being stressed out by change, but I wonder. In my last post I noted that this year’s graduates went from texting on flip phones as sixth graders to snapchatting photos of tossed caps at graduation. That’s a lot of lifestyle change in just six years.

I’m just a mom, making observations, but when I hear rising statistics of America’s kids cutting, using drugs, and contracting STD’s, I can’t help but wonder if the stimuli being pumped into their daily lives is having a negative effect. Every six seconds, my teen’s phone gives her approximately seventy-two new things to process. It might be a bit much.

So yes, it’s probably unrealistic to expect my teens to read library books on the porch all summer with crickets chirping in the background. But I think that some breaks from screens will do them good.

3. Kids Need Parents

This is what hasn’t changed. Even though my kids have Siri, Google, and 562 “friends” they can connect with at any moment of the day, they still need me.

  • Does my tween have a nervous habit of looking at her phone or using it as a crutch?
  • Does her confidence rise and fall with her social media feedback?
  • Is my son addicted to video games, movies, or pornography?
  • Are my kids trading healthy relationships for online interaction?

My kids need me to be informed, aware, and involved—especially in the summer. Even though they might not say so, they need me to parent them well, as we all face the many screens of summer.