Are Flip Phones Making a Comeback? They Are At My House!

Yep, I Got My 13-Year-Old Daughter a Flip Phone.

Parenting isn’t easy under the best of conditions. Life is busy. Children today are becoming more distracted, stressed and anxious and scientists are beginning to point to one main source for this: smartphones.

I am not saying smartphones are the root of all of our problems. I am saying that if our brain architecture is wired so that human to human interaction is essential for our well-being. If you look at how our smartphone habits have cut down on our face to face brain-building interaction time, you can see how this starts to influence our the brain development and mental wellness of our children.

In today’s podcast, I will share with you our parenting experiment by buying our daughter (age 13) a flip phone instead of a smartphone and how that choice has impacted our family. We’ll talk about:

Why I flipped off following the “normal” route in getting my kid a cell phone and why I am so glad I did.
Why not getting my daughter exactly what she wanted turned out to be exactly what she needed to grow a strong character and brain.
How our family is connecting more when we cut the smartphone consideration.
Why your child’s cell phone might be a key reason they are stressed.
The top 15 apps parents NEED to know about to protect their children.
Our four rules to owning a cell phone.

Episode #12: Are Flip Phones Making a Comeback? They Are in My House!

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In this Episode of The Rooted Family Podcast...

Why not getting my daughter exactly what she probably wanted turned out to be exactly what she needed to grow a strong character, a strong brain. (05:20)
So you're not just buying the phone, there's the apps, there's the texting, there's the social media and all of a sudden you're in a whole new world and you're trying to keep your kids safe and navigate it. (13:24)
What does that do to a 13-year-old girl's mind when she knows they're predators actively looking for her on a regular basis? (16:29)
Who exactly is programming your kid's brain when they're using a smartphone. (18:46)
Some phones are developed by neuro hackers and scientists who know how to program so that your brain becomes addicted. (21:45)
If it wasn't a phone, if it was a person, if a stranger knocked on my door and said hi, I would like to take your kid and mess with their brain so that it causes damage to their focusing ability, the relationship with you...(23:47)
She was genuinely happy and she thanked us and I asked her later if that was what she was expecting and she said, not exactly, but she was just happy to have a phone at all. (29:57)
I said, hey you guys, I have a challenge for you. Do you think you can make it from point a to point B without looking at your phone? (42:31)
That is what purposeful parenting is. The last thing we want to teach our kids is that going with the flow is more important than figuring out what is important to us. (47:50)

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This Episode's Question:

What age did you get or are you planning to get your child their first cell phone?

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Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

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Episode #6: Spending Brain Dollars Mindfully

Are Flip Phones Making a Comeback? They Are at My House!