How to Help Your Kids Manage Mobile Tech
Email 1
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Subject Line: How to Help Your Kids Manage Mobile Tech, Part One
Hello Wonderful Parents and Partners of Our Children’s Ministry!
Easter is over and end of school is almost here! Can you see it, smell it, or believe it!? Spring has sprung and now it is almost gone, with summer quickly approaching!
Kids will be out of school soon. They will have more free time and you will have more family time to play outside and breathe fresh beautiful air and OH WAIT… your kids have mobile devices! Summer may not look like that anymore at your house. Summer may look like kids sitting in a corner with faces down swiping, clicking, and tapping?
This month’s Online Parenting Class is here to help you take back real summer! This month’s topic is “How to Help Your Kids Manage Mobile Tech.” It is a virtual picnic basket full of great helpful hints and thoughts to get you ready for summer and beyond!
The key is we want to give you back some control when it comes to cellphones, tablets, and rest. We want you to be able to take back summer before it ever begins. Think about these helpful hints and put some of these ideas in place now so, by the time summer is here, it is just part of our house rules.
Have a blessed spring and super summer!
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/335463447/746c3e678e
Children’s Pastor
Email 2
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Subject Line: How to Help Your Kids Manage Mobile Tech, Part 2
Hello Children’s Ministry Parents:
We are writing you to give you some monthly inspiration and encouragement in the form our monthly Online Parenting Class. Each month we send you out a quick little video (4 minutes) with some smart parenting advice to help you as parents. We hope each of these videos have been inspiring, challenging and encouraging.
We would be more than happy to share any of them you have missed or would like to see again. We have had so many great ones, and I am sure some of them have gotten lost in the shuffle of your monthly load of emails. We want to make sure you have them to watch again to refresh your heart and minds.
We have wanted to share these with you each month because we know how hard parenting can be at moments. Even if there are 2 of you doing it together, it is often not easy to navigate these years with your children. We know it is even more difficult to do this parenting life if it is just you.
We would like to let you know you are not alone as an individual or as a couple. We are here for you as a ministry. We want to support you, pray for you, and be available to back you up. We also are a community; there are other parents around you doing the same things you are doing. They are having the same conversations you are having at home. The biggest lie Satan can whisper in your ear as a parent is that you or your family is the only one struggling. You are not. Satan wants to attack parents because you are the first and last line of discipleship in the life of your family.
You can do it. Stay strong not by yourself, with our ministry, church, and the community of God’s people around you!
Here is this month’s Online Parenting Class on “Helping Your Kids Manage Mobile Tech.” We hope it helps and encourages you!
Praying for You-
Children’s Pastor
Video Script
How to Help Your Kids Manage Mobile Tech
Welcome to this month’s online parenting class! This month we are going to talk about
kids, teens, and mobile tech. Yes, we are going to talk about cell phones and other
mobile tech gadgets this generation has had since they were babies. Yep, we did it. We
let our kids use our phones and tablets when they were little kids. Now those little
babies are grown and have their own devices.
There is no going back. Mobile tech is here to stay!
Our goal now is to help kids and teens learn to manage mobile tech. As adults, we have
our own mobile devices and we all have opinions about them now after a decade of
better and better tech. We love it and we hate it and we have to manage it. Our kids
need help managing it because they don’t have the skills we have as adults. Now is the
time to help your kids and teens learn to make mobile tech a part of their life and not
dominate their life.
Let me give you some thoughts that can help your children learn to manage the mobile
tech they have access to.
Tech is a privilege, not a right.
Never forget, your children don’t have to have their tablets, watches, and phones. Tech
is about adding to our lives not dominating our lives. Tech is a privilege and should be
treated that way. You provide your children with their devices and those devices should
be used in a way you approve of. We advise parents to use a tech contract to spell out
how you expect your kids to use their devices. When you spell out what you expect you
have every right to limit access to that tech when your kids choose to disobey.
No tech at meals.
This goes for the entire family. Leave mobile tech away from meals. Stop kids from
watching videos at meals and putting in headphones. Leverage meals as a time to have
real conversations, laugh, catch up, and learn how to live without the influence of tech.
Social Media accountability.
You should always have access to all your kids and teens social media accounts. If your
child is under 12 we recommend they have no social media, and older than 12, access
to it should be staggered and limited. You should be connected to your children on any
platform they use and if you see things that raise red flags you have every right to limit
access. As your children grow older your limit on social media should also get more
lenient. Social is just that, it’s social, so make sure you have a voice in that area for your
children.
Internet and cell bedtimes.
Never allow your children to have unlimited access to the internet all night because they
will stay up all night on it. There are many ways you can shut down the internet and the
cell phone data your children have at nights. Make sure your kids are clear when tech is
to be shut down so they can actually go to sleep. While we are talking about the internet
and data, lets talk about their browser access. Use your parental controls to limit
download of apps and also access to content on the internet. Your kids will watch what
you give them access to. Limit that!
Family fun that leaves tech alone.
Plan times where your family puts up the mobile tech and has some fun. Play a board
game. Plan a hike. Leave devices at home and go for a bike ride. Learn to hang out
without tech.
We want to encourage you to be aware of what your kids are using mobile tech for in
their lives. We love tech but we don’t want tech to wreck your family. Thanks for being
an active parent in the lives of your children and teens.
Texts/Tweets
TIP: Choose a hashtag for your tweets and use it consistently. That will tell Twitter to store a list of your tweets on one place for later reference.
Tweet One: Children don’t need to have a cellphone, tablet, or even a smart watch. They are all optional wants and privileges. Parents can choose wisely when they are allowed. #techparenting #nocellhome #takebacksummer #unplug
Tweet Two: Technology use in your home should always come with expectations, respect, and accountability. #momsmarts #dadwise #techsmart #parenting #parent
Tweet Three: Meals should always be technology free. There is nothing so important that a family meal should be interrupted. Pick up the burger, put down the phone, and connect to the people in front of you. #techfreemeal #familydinner #facetoface #parenting #familytech
Tweet Four: If your child is under that age of 12, they don’t need a social media account. The things they post as a immature pre-teen may live on with them as a teen, and maybe beyond. #smarttech #preteenparenting #under12 #socialmediawise
Tweet Five: Bedrooms and bedtime are for sleeping not scrolling. Have your kids leave the tech at the door so they can snore! #techfreesleep #phonefreezone #parenting #momsmarts #dadwise
Tweet Six: Family fun time means everyone turns off their tech so they can connect! Using your tech will make your family time a wreck! #familytime #techfreefun #parenting #advice #turnitoff