Today my 10-year-old threw an absolute meltdown because I took her phone away for the night. Screaming, crying, slamming doors, telling me she hates me and that she has no life without it. Over a phone. She’s ten. She can’t fall asleep without it. Can’t sit through dinner without sneaking it under the table. Can’t do homework without just checking one thing that turns into an hour of tiktok. Her brain is fried. She’s irritable, moody, and completely addicted, and I feel like I’m losing her to a screen.
I’m so sick of hearing it’s the world they grew up in. No. We gave them this world. We handed toddlers ipads and thought it was cute. Now they’re zombies who can’t function without constant dopamine hits from likes and comments.
I miss when kids got bored and actually had to figure out what to do. When they played outside until the streetlights came on. When the biggest fight was over whose turn it was on the Nintendo not who got left out of a group chat.
I’m not asking for a flip phone. I’m saying kids shouldn’t have smartphones or social media at all until they’re at least 16. Let them be kids without the addiction and the fomo and the comparison.
I’m genuinely one phone slammed against the wall away from tossing the whole thing. I’ve even looked at things like Brick just so I can stay off my own phone and not model the same chaos.
Any other parents ready to admit this whole experiment has been a disaster?
