Why Summer is the Ideal Time for a ScreenStrong Digital Detox
5 Tips for a Screen-free Summer
“My kids have already watched 3 hours of TV today, and it is only 9:30 in the morning.”
“It’s lunchtime, and my tween daughter is still in PJs. She has been glued to TikTok since getting out of bed—no, since she woke up and before she even got out of bed.”
“My teen son was up till the wee hours of the morning playing video games–in fact, I’m not sure he even went to sleep!”
As summer begins, parents everywhere grapple with their kids' screen time. When those school backpacks are stashed away and classrooms close, video games and smartphones take center stage in our kids’ lives. If families don't establish screen limits at the beginning of summer, they will likely face a challenging few months filled with screen time frustrations. Despite the temptation to indulge in screen time, summer is the ideal season for a digital detox.
Why is Summer Such a Challenge?
During the school year, kids have less downtime. They use screens for classes and stay busy with scheduled activities and homework. However, summer poses a natural screen time challenge due to three main factors:
Lack of a schedule.
Unless kids are booked with back-to-back camps, playdates, and vacations for nearly three months, they have far less structure than during the school year. Many parents are still working, and screens become the cheapest and easiest babysitters during summer.
Abundance of downtime.
Parents also view summer as necessary downtime for kids who feel rushed and overscheduled during the school year. They see screen time as a legitimate form of relaxation for kids, but it isn’t. Screens do not relax; they stimulate us, especially when they are interactive and filled with social pressure, as on social media. You may have noticed this paradox in your own life. Taking a break from work to scroll through Instagram or Facebook is not relaxing; it can leave you feeling more stressed and harried. Kids do need free time, but an abundance of free time on screens is a trap because this type of screen overuse gets many kids in trouble.
Unfortunately, what's meant to be a relaxing time for kids on their devices often becomes a source of high stress for them. Whether it's from FOMO, comparing themselves to others, feeling bullied, or being overstimulated by gameplay, the result is compromised kids. Eventually, even more screen time is needed to satisfy screen cravings, leading to conflicts over screen usage in our homes.
The most toxic screens are the hardest to manage.
Interactive screens, such as video games and social media, qualify as toxic screens for kids. The high levels of dopamine triggered in a child's brain during these activities create cravings that are hard to satisfy, leading to dependency and addiction, bad moods, and family conflicts. They are the screens that are used most in the summer. Other types of screen use—like developing spreadsheets and typing essays—do not create the same dopamine triggers and are not the problem.
Pay Now or Pay Later
Summer is when kids are on screens the most but need them the least. While screens can be helpful tools during the school year, they should not be treated as toys or rewards all summer. Imposing limits at the start of summer might cause some initial whining and resistance, but in the long run, your child will be better off, and so will you. They will naturally discover more enriching downtime activities without the constant lure of screens, making the transition back to school easier when screen time must be reduced again. You can either pay now or pay later. Setting boundaries early will lead to a more enjoyable and fulfilling summer. Here are some tips to get you started:
Tips for a Screen-Free Summer
1. Fire the TV Babysitter
Summer is not for TV time! It’s easier than you think to fire the TV during the summer when we should all be outside. We all get in a bad mood when we feel like we have not been productive, have had a sluggish start to the day, or have wasted our time with nothing to show for it.
ScreenStrong Summer TV Tips:
Make a point to watch TV only on purpose this summer, together as a family, instead of in isolation.
Avoid leaving the TV on in the background all day.
Never start the day with a TV activity. The first hour of the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. Starting with TV can put kids in a bad mood once it is turned off, as it often leads to feeling unproductive and sluggish. Studies show that screens first thing in the morning excite and exhaust a child’s attention. Listen to one mom’s thoughts here.
Store the remote control in a hidden place that’s not easily accessible. This prevents the TV from becoming a go-to activity at every moment of boredom.
Implement a rule: the TV stays off as long as the sun is out. Encourage outdoor activities instead.
Swap TV time with music. Play music around the house most of the day to create a lively and engaging atmosphere.
Remove TVs from your children’s bedrooms to discourage isolated viewing and promote better sleep habits.
Consider having one TV in your home in the most central area. Use it only for family movie nights or co-viewing as a family.
Curate a list of family movies and good documentaries to watch together.
2. Send Your Kid’s Smartphone on Vacation
If you’re already a ScreenStrong Family, your kids probably don’t have smartphones. Do you need to make changes? Summer is the perfect time to hit the pause button—we can help you do that.
This transition will be easy for younger children. Consider replacing your teen’s smartphone with a talk/text-only phone for the summer or even the upcoming school year. This could be one of the best parenting decisions you ever make! By sending your kid’s smartphone on vacation, you’re setting the stage for a summer filled with real-life connections, adventures, and growth.
ScreenStrong Phone Detox Tips:
Gather a few friends and their families to join you in a summer digital detox. Everything is more fun with friends. Turn it into a competition to see who can go the longest without a smartphone and video games.
Get a basic phone for the summer. These phones allow only calls and texts, minimizing distractions and online temptations. Keep the basic phone during the school year.
Use a basic phone as a shared house phone. Anyone can use it when necessary, but it should be returned to a central location, like the kitchen, when not in use.
3. Remove Video Game Consoles for a Healthier Summer
If you buy a dozen donuts and leave them on the kitchen counter, your kids will struggle to resist them. The same goes for video games. If gaming equipment is visible, your kids will find it hard to resist playing. Removing access is the first step in preventing addiction.
One dad told me that he packed up his son’s gaming gear and put it in the trunk of his car for the summer. (Just remember to hide the car keys too!) Another dad told me he took the gaming system to his office for the summer. And a third dad told me he was so frustrated watching his son game his summer away that he threw it all away in the dumpster at his office.
Get your kids and teens outside to play this summer—with sprinklers, water balloons, and slip-n-slides. Summer is about popsicles, sunshine, and water. It is not about sitting inside online in a darkened room.
ScreenStrong Video Game Tips:
Commit to a summer without video games.
Sell your video game consoles and let your kids use the money to buy something from a sports or hobby store.
Replace video game time with new hobbies like backyard camping, engineering projects, or fort-building.
Help your teens find summer jobs. Every teen needs a summer job to learn responsibility and gain valuable experience.
4. Fire the Tablet Babysitter
Tablets are perhaps the biggest screen villains in the lives of our young kids. These screens are small, quiet, and easy to read; parents think their kids are learning from them. Many parents give young kids tablets before they give them phones, not realizing that a tablet is just a big smartphone. We would never give our 5-year-old a smartphone to disappear on the sofa for hours, but we give them tablets—the same thing, or worse.
IPads, Kindle Fires, and other tablets are the gateway drugs for future screen dependencies and addictions. Kids can use them to watch YouTube, access chat functions, and search the open web. Tablets seem to cause the most problems in homes with young kids.
When a journalist asked Steve Jobs if his kids loved the iPad, he said, “They haven’t used it . . . we limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
ScreenStrong Tablet Tips:
Gather all the tablets and hide them for the summer. Your life will be much easier.
This summer, instead of a tablet, put books in your kids' hands (they are about the same size).
5. Don’t Let the Kids Be in Charge of Their Activities This Summer
If you let your children decide all of their summer activities, they may lean toward low-effort, high-reward activities like screen time. I made this big mistake with my oldest son.
Your daughters will beg for more social media time, and your sons will lobby for video gaming as a hobby to be pursued. Social media will cause your daughter to be more anxious, and long hours of video gaming can turn into a hobby for your son, making him lazier than you can imagine. (Remember, gambling is also considered a hobby.) You will be frustrated because summer screen hours are nearly impossible to manage.
Your kids will convince you that screens are the only way to connect with friends. Don’t believe it. Structure more time with friends in person, and everyone will have a happier summer.
Take on the role of a successful coach who leads their team through a championship season. Just like a good coach implements a winning game plan, parents will find success when they lead their kids away from summer screen activities. This means parents are ultimately in charge of their kids' activities this summer.
ScreenStrong Summer Activities Tips:
Let your kids have choices only for activities that will not hurt them or cause addictions.
Consider getting a pet this summer. Training a dog and caring for a pet is a perfect summer activity!
Enroll your kids in a totally screen and phone-free summer camp. If you can’t find one, take turns hosting backyard camps this summer with other like-minded parents.
Keep a consistent schedule with morning chores starting at the same time each day. Teach younger kids to plan their day by writing down their schedules. This helps them manage downtime effectively.
Have your kids get a job this summer. They can do house and pet sitting, yard work, or other age-appropriate tasks.
Fire the housekeeper and pay your kids to deep clean, do their laundry, organize the garage, paint the deck, etc. Chores should be a part of every summer schedule.
You take a vacation from meal prep by scheduling kids of all ages to take charge of meals. This will keep them busy, and they need to learn the life skills of grilling and planning menus.
Take on a project together. Schedule time to work on the go-kart (or other project), read, and work in the yard.
Schedule bike riding and exercise every day.
Note: Our Kids’ Brains and Screens course includes a list of 200+ non-tech activities for students.
Summer is a perfect time for a screen detox.
Don’t waste another minute on the empty calories of leisure screens this summer. Instead, make a plan to prevent the screen drama in your home and use this summer to build new habits and hobbies.
Kids can’t detox on their own—they need your help. Join our Connect Group to find support and take part in our ScreenStrongReset: 30-Day Detox. This will give you and your kids a glimpse of life without screen distractions and give your kids a chance to reset their brains and engage in new activities.
Summer is a good time to make big screen changes. Enjoy our new Kids’ Brains and Screens student course together as a family and learn the science behind screen use together.
We have many wonderful memories of our kids hosting their friends at our home through the summer months. Invest in board game nights, fire pit gatherings, burgers on the grill, and summer movies in the backyard—a projector is cheaper than a counseling visit. So, one final tip I can give you from personal experience is to increase your food budget! The best goal for the summer is to get our kids face-to-face with their friends. When you open your doors (and your fridge) for your kids and their friends, you will discover the power of socializing around mealtimes. Keep good snacks out and schedule regular backyard meals and potlucks. This will go a long way in removing the screen conflicts in your home this summer.
What memories will you build this summer? You get to choose the success of your summer now.
For more encouragement, check out the following podcast episodes:
Summer Strategies: Keeping Middle Schoolers ScreenStrong This Summer (#190)
48 Benefits Living 48 Months ScreenStrong with Evan & Andrew Hempe (#169)