Screen-free summer: Why one family is curbing device use for their kids

Brittney and Ben Wimmer run a busy household.

Ben works two jobs as an athletic trainer and retail consumer merchandiser, and Brittney runs her own sourdough business from home. The main time commitment for them, though, is their six kids, ages 1 to 12.

The Wimmers are a blended family, and the three oldest children alternate weeks with their other parents. When all six kids are home, though, things can get chaotic.

Baby Shark is the most viewed video on YouTube for a reason. With today's technology, many parents might turn to screens to calm their kids down when things get too overwhelming.

But not the Wimmers.

"During the school year, screens were just a point of focus for the kids. They wanted the screens all the time," Ben said.

To curb their kids' fixation on tablets and TVs, Brittney says they started having them earn screen time through chores. "That was productive for a while," she said, "until they thought that every good deed they did deserved screen time."

So, when the school year ended this spring, they pulled the plug completely.

A societal issue

The Wimmers' struggles to regulate technology use aren't isolated.

According to a 2020 study by Pew Research Center, almost half of all toddlers have used or interacted with smartphones by the time they're 2. Two-thirds of children have used phones by the time they're 11, while 78% have used tablets by that same age. Nearly one in five children under age 12 have their own smartphone.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) reports that children ages 8-12 spend four to six hours each day using screens. That number jumps to up to nine hours for teens.

While screens can offer benefits like access to educational material, the risks are severe. Research suggests that increased screen time can have negative impacts on executive functioning and academic performance, increase the risk of obesity, mental health conditions and sleep disorders, and even limit relationships between children and their caregivers.

"I think it is a public health issue in a sense," said Amy Macechko, who has been the health and wellness coordinator for Talawanda School District since 2006. "The impact that technology is having on humans in general, but especially our young people. It is such a critical time in the development of identity and self-concept and social skills."

Warning signs

This summer, the Wimmers' kids aren't using screens at all. It may seem like a drastic, nearly impossible measure, but Brittney and Ben said it was the best decision for their family after they became increasingly concerned about their kids' relationships with technology.

"When they couldn't get screen time, they weren't really able to regulate themselves emotionally," Brittney said. "When they were really happy is when we rewarded them with screen time, and we didn't want them to have that idol in their life, something that had that much control over them."

Only the Wimmers' oldest son, Bryson, has his own phone for emergencies, while the rest share family tablets.

Before this summer, the Wimmer kids could earn screen time by taking out the trash, walking the family’s dogs, playing with each other for extended periods of time and more. Even that came with problems, though. Brittney said their kids would hurry through chores and neglect responsibilities to get to screen time faster.

"Another big red flag was even if we told them, 'Hey, five minutes left on your screen and then we're gonna do something else ...' there would be like a meltdown," Ben said. These meltdowns could last until they provided another opportunity to earn screen time back, Brittney added.

A (mostly) screen-free summer

Quitting screen time entirely for the summer wasn't a planned out decision, Ben said. He and Brittney shared the same concerns about how screens were impacting their children's wellbeing, though, so when the school year ended, they went for it.

"I honestly was expecting the worst," Brittney said. "I was expecting meltdowns, I was preparing myself to need ibuprofen every single day. I was practicing, 'Be gentle Brittney.'"

But instead of the worst, she was blown away by how positive her kids' attitudes were.

"They used their brains," she said. "They explored more things. Their connections with me and each other were so much better, like instantly."

The three oldest kids alternate each week during the summer between the Wimmers' house and their other parents' homes. While they're with their other parents, screens are still allowed, but that hasn’t caused issues when they come back to Oxford and put down the devices.

To help the screen-free summer be a success, Brittney and Ben are limiting their own screen time, too, checking their phones in the morning and evening and checking in with each other once an hour while Ben is at work.

They've also made a summer bucket list of adventures to have fun without devices. Everything on the list has to include the whole family, Brittney said, and be local and affordable. Among the adventures are a King's Island trip, a trampoline park visit and a backyard water balloon fight.

The little adventures the Wimmers' kids have gotten into themselves so far this summer have been gratifying, too, Brittney said. One day after helping with yard work, she said the kids all started digging for worms together by the family's chicken shed. They collected worms for hours before coming in and announcing that they wanted to start a worm museum when they grew up.

"None of that would have happened if we hadn't have eliminated screens," Brittney said.

The few times they've let their kids back on their devices this summer, particularly as a gift for two with June birthdays, it's led to an immediate attitude shift.

"All they wanted after that was, can we earn screen time?" Brittney said. "It was like an addiction."

Back to school, back to screens?

Brittney's oldest son is going to middle school for the first time this fall. She gave him the choice of being homeschooled or attending a public school, and he chose to go to public school. Brittney's goal is to homeschool her youngest kids as they grow up, though.

Whether screen-free summer will stretch into fall will be a gametime decision, Ben and Brittney said. Their oldest son will have his phone for safety since he'll be walking to and from school each day.

Statewide, lawmakers and educators are also grappling with how to manage students' dependency on technology.

In May, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill requiring schools to develop official cell phone use policies to limit screen time during school hours. Talawanda's official policy handbooks state that middle school students must store cell phones in their lockers throughout the day, elementary school students must keep them in their backpacks, and high school students must put them "away during instruction."

Health and wellness coordinator Macechko said they're also having conversations about how to help students navigate their relationships to technology. During one recent mental health initiative called Amplifying Brave Voices, students held peer listening sessions to talk about stressors in their lives and what they want to tell caring adults.

During those listening sessions, Macechko said social media came up as a consistent concern, but students also view it as a way to connect and worry about being left out. Often, students are aware of the harm that being on devices constantly can cause and want to unplug, but Macechko said it can be hard to disconnect.

"I've had conversations with students where I think they would welcome that," Macechko said, "but it definitely is that fear of missing out. 'If I haven't checked in or snapped the picture or whatever, then I'm not in the loop with what everyone else is doing and seeing.'"

For families like the Wimmers that want to help change their kids' relationships to social media and mobile devices, Macechko said it's important that the adults in their lives show how to engage with technology in a healthy way.

"I think it's really critical that families do set boundaries and adults model it, as well, for students," Macechko said. "We don't have to be connected [online] all the time, and there's other ways to connect with people outside of the devices."