The decisions
A handful of calls account for most of what a childhood looks like: the first phone, what happens in the bedroom at night, who owns the tablet. Each one gets a straight answer and three ways to act on it, so you can start where you actually are.
Build your family planDecision 1
When should our kid get a phone?
There is no age that flips a switch. There is a question worth asking instead, and a set of cheaper answers most families never consider.
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Decision 2
Where should screens live in the house?
The highest-value change most families can make, it costs nothing, and the evidence behind it is the least disputed in this whole field.
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Decision 3
Should our kid have their own tablet?
Whose tablet it is turns out to matter more than how long they spend on it, and it is the one thing you can still decide after the tablet is in the house.
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Decision 4
How do we handle video games?
Not all games are the same thing, and sorting them by what pays for them tells you more than sorting them by hours.
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Decision 5
How do we handle YouTube?
The video is rarely the problem. What comes after it is, and that is a setting you can change.
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Decision 6
What about group chats and social apps?
The hardest decision here, because the cost of saying no is real and lands on your child rather than on you.
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Decision 7
What do they actually do instead?
The question every other decision on this site depends on, and the one most screen time advice skips entirely.
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