Let’s Talk About Tablets…
Some evenings we slide into chill mode… with devices.
Parents want to decompress after long days at work and the same is true of our children after school. This can mean snacks, jammies, and the usual suspects: Tablets with YouTube Kids, Roblox, Geometry Dash, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Bluey, Simpsons (that one’s on my husband), and for our oldest, a drift into YouTube Shorts on his phone. Real life in 2025.
And then there are the nights we try something different.
The kids love Dress to Impress on Roblox, so once in a while we play it offline: real closets, real timers, real judging. My husband and I grab scorecards; the kids sprint through bedrooms, emerge in wildly creative outfits, and the living room turns into a runway. Confidence soars. So does the laundry pile. It’s not our norm, but it reminds us we can pull their favorite online game into the real world and make a memory.
We also have a running family joke to “Touch grass.”
Sometimes our teen throws it back at us - “Have you touched grass today?” We try (key word: try) to keep a rhythm - some outside time, some reading, some actual-play/craft time. As they get older, it gets trickier. Friends live on FaceTime. Group chats happen inside games. Nobody has a landline anymore, and connection often travels through a screen first.
When someone’s sick, we’re wiped, or the weather isn’t cooperating, screen time expands. We notice it in how our kids act - shorter fuses, tired eyes, more fighting. That’s our signal to call a family meeting. Nothing fancy - just everyone on the couch.
We talk about what we’re all feeling and how it could be tied to our devices and apps.
Then we pick one or two doable boundaries together to start implimenting. No shame. Just steering. If any of this sounds familiar, here are a few offline translations we’ve tried that borrow from what our kids already love:
Dress to Impress → Closet Runway: 5-minute timers, three themes, living room catwalk, judges’ cards. Bonus, us as parents can sit and talk for 5 whole minutes at a time, uninterrupted while they are finding their outfits.
K-Pop Demon Hunters → Karaoke Sing Along: just turn on the soundtrack and sing our hearts out! You can also clean up the kitchen at the same time.
Minecraft → Cardboard City: boxes, tape, markers to build and get creative. You know you have some Amazon boxes, shoe boxes, or even cardboard cereal box recycling floating around to let them get creative with. It ends up in the trash in the end either way.
Bluey → Keepy Uppy / Grannies: balloons, dress-up, pretend play - just do it.
Why bother pulling things offline at all?
Because bodies need movement, faces need other faces, and families need moments where we’re in the same room making something together. As a music therapist and a mom, I see it every week: a ten-minute sing-along dance break resets everybody faster than another ten-minute scroll. And when the scroll wins (because it will sometimes), try to notice it and make a tiny change.
If you haven’t had a technology check-in lately with your kids, try this simple three-question version at dinner or bedtime:
What do you love online right now?
What part doesn’t feel good in your mind or body?
What’s one offline thing we could try this week?
We’re not perfect.
Screens creep. Boundaries slip. The couch becomes a dual screen experience (tablet and TV). But presence doesn’t require perfection - just a little curiosity, a little honesty, and one small, real-world thing to do together tonight.
Interested in having this conversation with other moms locally? Check out The Village Collective of Jackson. We hold a monthly meetup for moms (foster moms, grandmas, aunts, you are all welcome) and your kids/families.
