“You don’t trust me.” “It’s not fair.” “Everyone else gets more time.” “All my friends are online.” If you’ve heard some version of these, you already know the problem: a rule your child had no part in making is a rule you will be enforcing forever.
This is an agreement your family writes together. Some limits stay firm — children do not set the rules alone. What changes is that everyone hears the why: what you’re noticing, what they’re feeling, and what the whole family is trying to protect.
What you’ll work through together:
- What technology is for in your house, and what deserves protecting from it
- Which moments are device-free, and who that includes
- What happens when it’s time to stop, and what actually helps your child stop
- Where phones sleep
- What happens when something goes wrong
That last one matters most.
Most family agreements are a list of limits. This one includes a line about what happens when your child comes to you with something frightening — a message, a mistake, something they saw and can’t unsee. A child who expects to lose the phone for telling you may decide that hiding it feels safer than asking for help. So the agreement says it out loud, in advance: you can tell me, even if you made a choice you regret. I will listen before I react.
Enter your email and I’ll send it over.