Taking or limiting phone

[Anonymous]

I think my teen has a major phone addiction. When we were on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I was stunned at her phone habits. She can’t seem to have one free minute without that phone. I don’t mind if she is talking to friends, which she often is. But she also spends an inordinate amount of time scrolling mindlessly.

Those who have put the kibosh on the phone, please tell me how you approached this.

[Anonymous]

You need to set rules that the entire family abides by. We don't have our phones at meals, while watching TV, when we goto the bathroom and when we goto bed. We all follow these rules. Lots of adults have phone addiction problems as well.

[Anonymous]

Do you have family sharing? You can limit her access to apps.

[Anonymous]

Limit access to apps.

Phone doesn’t come with you when family is all together.

[Anonymous]

How do you limit access to apps? I set it up to limit things and it just lets you override the limit.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

We started how we meant to go on. No phones at meals or at the table. No phones when guests are over. When someone talks to you "live" you put your phone down and look them in the eyes. No phones a half hour before bedtime, and you don't get it back until you're ready to walk out the door in the morning.

Do our kids use their phones on vacation? Yes. I totally will ask them to navigate when we're walking around foreign cities. And then they'll get on their phone at night after dinner to connect with friends and "talk about their day".

[Anonymous]

My 13.5 yr old daughter comes back from school at 2:30, I take the phone away at 4:00 and then she can have it back at 8:30for 60 mins. Is this a pain to implement? Yes, it is but she is better off with this setup.

Oh and she checks in her phone downstairs for the night at 9:30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you limit access to apps? I set it up to limit things and it just lets you override the limit.

There is a toggle that says “block at end of limit” and make sure it’s on (green)

This will allow them only one minute.

You have to set up a parent passcode so they can’t change the settings. If you set up family sharing you can change everything from your own phone. And see all activity. Every individual ap. It’s so easy.

Tons of how to’s online.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, you set up the limits from your own phone. Gotta get their Apple ID nestled under yours in family sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We started how we meant to go on. No phones at meals or at the table. No phones when guests are over. When someone talks to you "live" you put your phone down and look them in the eyes. No phones a half hour before bedtime, and you don't get it back until you're ready to walk out the door in the morning.

Do our kids use their phones on vacation? Yes. I totally will ask them to navigate when we're walking around foreign cities. And then they'll get on their phone at night after dinner to connect with friends and "talk about their day".

+1 I fully admit that my 15 yo spends far too much time, in my opinion, on Instagram. But we've never had phones at our table or out in restaurants and everyone's phone gets plugged into a family charging station at night.

I still have screentime controls on my 13 yo and 15 yo phones. I don't limit the 15 yo's screentime anymore, but I monitor it and have the ability to cut it off if ever needed.