Rule number 18 in the contract states, "You will mess up. I will take away your phone. We will sit down and talk about it. We will start over again. You & I, we are always learning. I am on your team. We are in this together." But before handing over the phone, it's important for families to decide how they'll handle broken rules and "mess ups."
"If we remove this device, we remove a lot of the communication and a lot of convenience," Hofmann says. "So I think that there is a way that we can maybe set time limits."
For older kids, their phones become their lifelines for telling parents when they need to be picked up after school, if after-school practices are being changed or cancelled, etc. So by taking the phone away, you could be hurting your child — and you — more than helping.
Rather, Hofmann suggests focusing on the social component, "taking it away earlier in the night or taking it away on weekends, a time when he doesn’t need it for a function." Parents have to decide what makes the most sense for their family, but keep in mind how phones are used these days.
