Season 5 Bonus Episode: Wrapping Up Tech Tips for the Holidays! // Hillary Wilkinson, podcast host

“We do not recommend gifting phones. Introduce them as tools, not toys.”

- Hillary Wilkinson

Healthy Screen Habit Takeaway

Resources

Resources Mentioned:

Instagram: @brunchwithBabs - Preschool Teacher Influencer

Show Transcript

If you're getting this episode in your feed today, it's most likely because you are a dedicated listener who subscribes to the Healthy Screen Habits podcast. I am infinitely grateful for you. I am so grateful for every single download.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. Truly, you have no idea. With all of your help, our podcast has reached over 11,000 downloads and been recognized as one of the leading voices in digital wellness. None of this would've been possible without you.  Our mission of educating and empowering families to create their healthiest screen habits is only possible through the amplification of the work researchers, parents, teachers, and thought leaders that are doing the hard work. That's you. You are a thought leader. If you are here, you are on the leading edge of digital wellness and intentional parenting. I am on a constant search for new material and voices in this arena. If you think that the work that you or someone you know is doing could benefit from being featured on Healthy Screen Habits, please reach out and get in touch. We are continually building our network and would love to help you extend your reach. 

Now we are headed into the wonderful, messy, chaotic and enjoyable time of year known as the holiday season. If you've followed Healthy Screen Habits for any amount of time, you know that all four founding members are moms. We have 14 kids between the four of us. So it will come as no surprise that this time of year we find it best to heed our own advice: live life intentionally, and take a little break from the weekly podcast publication to spend this time focusing on our families. We truly walk our talk when we do this. 

So the coming months have a fair amount of gift giving and receiving surrounding various holidays. Don't miss this opportunity to go public with your healthy screen habits and tech intentional parenting, this is the perfect time to let friends and family know that your house is looking forward to receiving analog toys. That is toys that don't make noise, don't flash lights, or generally require batteries. This is the perfect season to reset your entertainment base for kids. You can create themed family gifting ideas by letting aunts, uncles, grandparents know that your child is maybe getting a toy kitchen, and any items that they think of to contribute to cooking up imaginary play would be wonderful.

Or maybe you ask them for items to contribute to sports of all sorts. Or you could create a sleepover at cousin's bag with special PJs from one person. Another person might add a sleeping bag or a toiletry kit. If you have artistic kiddos, there is a never ending need for art supplies. The idea here is to create opportunities for kids to exercise mentally, socially, and physically. We are looking to get creativity going, create connections, and make memories.

If you are looking for toy ideas, there are many lists online that have great ideas for analog toys. You can use these lists by printing them out for your kids; give them a marker and have them circle the ones they hope to see under the tree or on your special day of gift giving. So you're, you're kind of recreating that old Sears catalog experience of yester year. Uh, so you're gonna take a picture of the circled items and send that to the friends and family that are looking to buy something that will be well received. So with this pre-approved list, everyone wins. Kids are excited to see something they picked out. You're okay with anything on that list. And gift givers get the feel good boost when they see your child's excitement. Win, win, win!

If you do letters to Santa, a great tip I heard was from my favorite veteran preschool teacher influencer. You can check her out on Instagram at brunch with Babs. The tip is to limit the list to four items. You give them the guidance to ask for: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. 

Older kids, maybe beyond this, the only thing that they might be relentlessly asking for is a phone. We do not recommend gifting phones. It sets a bad precedent for both gift giving and ownership. When you give your child a phone as a gift, it sends a mixed message. This is yours, but I control it. So you, I mean, if you give a gift of a phone, you either opt to throw caution to the wind, you give them a new phone cart blanche, and deal with the fallout that will happen. It's not if that will happen when they spend too much time on it. Get a crash course in pornography, deal with social media, fallout, et cetera. I can go on, but I won't. Or it comes with so many strings attached as far as what's allowed, what's not allowed, etiquette, monitoring, filtering, et cetera.

That what starts off as something exciting for your child becomes this point of resentment because you gave it to them. It's theirs. So save yourself a headache. Be intentional with phones. Introduce them as tools, not toys. Do not give a phone as a present. If you want something phone adjacent, consider gifting a phone case or headphones or something along those lines. So it will  build the anticipation of getting a phone, but the phone is not the gift. 

Let's talk about some fun ways to incorporate technology into your holidays. My first, one of like our go-tos at our house is create a holiday music playlist. You have each member of the family contribute their favorite songs of the season. This has been such a hit in my house that my kids even do this with their friends. It is very funny to hear what constitutes as holiday music to teenage boys. So I highly recommend it. You will enjoy it. Another thing is, most towns have neighborhoods that have extra good light displays. You can usually find these on Facebook or the Next Door app, or even some city websites will like, oh, advertise specific neighborhoods that are good to, you know, go, go light viewing. So have your kids look up some of these and map out a route. If their mapping skills take you on a totally different direction than intended, call it an adventure, share a laugh, move on. Remember, this is how memories get made. Some of our worst camping trips are the ones that live on in infamy and get revisited in storytelling. So whatever adventure, awaits, remember, that's your actual objective for the night. If you get to see some pretty holiday lights along the way, so be it <laugh>. Okay? 

Another one is, kids are awesome photographers. Their perspective brings really unique views to the world. So tell everyone to take between five and 10 holiday themed picks. Put them all together for a slideshow that you guys get to enjoy together. And my last, uh, fun way to incorporate tech into your holidays is, I mean, can it even be called December if you don't have at least one family movie night? Make it extra snugly. Bring in the blankets, the fun snacks, watch a movie together and really use this as an opportunity to connect. When you do this, you show your kids, you're making them a priority. They know that they matter. It boosts self image, floods your kids with oxytocin plus,  I mean, it's just fun. We don't have to get into all the science of it. It's just fun. 

So Season Six of Healthy Screen Habits podcast is coming January 4th. That's the first Wednesday of the new year. I am going to ha be focusing on Tech Tots and Littles for Season Six. Now, even if you don't have littles in your family, the resources and techniques are really fairly invaluable. I also have episodes for families with kids of all ages. So while, although the overall season has a theme, not every episode is specific to it. You can get a preview of each week's episode by following us on Instagram and Facebook at Healthy Screen Habits. Our social media posts reflect what's happening in that week's episode. If you are interested in listening to a certain topic or a past episode, please go check out our podcast playlists. This is sort of a library of all episodes. We've organized episodes into categories so you can easily find or reference what you're looking for. You find the podcast playlists by going to healthy screen habits.org. Click on the podcast button and scroll down. But most, most importantly, from all of us at Healthy Screen Habits, we really wish you a happy and healthy holiday season. Thank you so much for your continued support, and we will see you in January!