Experiment

This week we have been doing an experiment on the kids, bwwahaha, my creepy laugh, haha. I wanted to share it sooner but first wanted to see some type of results. In my previous posts I've mentioned about my son getting into his teenage attitude and always being on his phone. Too much of anything can be bad so it was time to take action! We decided that after school both the kids are to turn in their phones to me. 

Before I go on, did you know that kids can be on their phones at school these days? I don't know if it's just his school but yup it's allowed. After hearing this I started thinking, he gets to be on his phone at school then comes home, puts his ear buds in his ears and sticks his nose in his phone til it's bedtime? Keep in mind that I have no idea what he's listening to or watching. Another thing my son shared with me, is that his friends are looking at porn on their phones. I like to think that my son does not mess with that stuff but really all we can do is just keep letting him know that we trust him to not look at that stuff and trust his judgement. Trust is a huge thing in my house and he hasn't done anything for us to question his judgment.

OK, back to the experiment. After the phones are turned in they can use that time to do their chores, home work and anything else within reason til dinner time. It's nice to have their homework done before my husband gets home because after dinner we can use that time to hang out as a family whether it's watching a movie or talking (my daughter loves to talk). 

When we are done with our family time the kids are given back their phones. There is no set time as to when they get them back, every night this week it has been all at different times. One night they didn't get their phones til they fell asleep so they didn't really have any "phone time" at home. Another evening they got it back at 8:30pm. Now I'm a reasonable person, I had them helping me with a big cleaning project and they asked if they could listen to music on their phones while cleaning. I agreed but the rule was that they could not do anything else on their phones and no ear buds. My daughter can be so much easier at times than my son. He kept trying to sneak all this other stuff while wearing ear buds! I gave him 2 warnings and after that I took his phone away. My daughter on the other hand was able to keep her phone cause she followed our agreement. 

The pros of this experiment is that my sons attitude has been way better then in recent weeks. For my daughter, well she doesn't really have an issue with being on her phone a lot, shes more into painting her nails and wanting to hang out with us. I hope she stays that way! Downside, my son gives me a little mean look for time to time when he has to turn in his phone but it fades away after he realizes that it won't change anything. 

All in all, this has proven to be a huge success! We will definitely be doing this from here on out. 

Yesterday I was thinking how much your child needs you when they are babies. They need our love, attention and for us to show them how to behave. I always thought that as they got older I would be less in demand but it is the complete opposite. I find that we need to be more involved during the preteen/teen years than ever before. They need our love, attention and for us to show them how to behave still and will always look to us to not only teach but model right from wrong.