By India McCarty
Jenny Marrs recently shared the reason she is “holding the line” on the strict smartphone rules she has for her children.
“I by no means have this figured out. I think it’s simple when your kids are young but as they become teens, it becomes harder to hold the line on tech,” she shared in an Instagram story, via Entertainment Now.
Marrs said her teenage kids don’t have smartphones, and “thankfully, they have a friend or two who are in the same boat but the vast majority of teens are on their smartphones alllllll the time.”
“Our boys do feel left out and ask for a ‘real phone’ often,” she continued. “And our daughter is relieved not to have to manage the ‘drama’ that comes with phones (group texting and the gossip that takes place is something she gets to avoid and she never asks for a phone because it’s easier for her to say ‘sorry my parents said no.’ I’ll be the bad guy any day of the week!).”
However, no matter how her kids feel, Marrs said she and her husband Dave are “holding that line.”
“No smart phones until 16. No social media until 18,” she said. “I don’t care if that makes them frustrated. My job is to protect them and I believe this is one of the most important areas in which I can keep their world small and ensure they are IN the world, not on their phones.”
Marrs also encouraged other parents to take similar measures.
“I believe all of us parents have to talk in order to figure out how to best raise our kids in this digital age,” she concluded. “No one can do it perfectly but we can all learn from one another.”
Marrs isn’t the only HGTV star who has made her stance on smartphones for kids clear. Erin and Ben Napier have been open about their commitment to keeping their daughters offline for as long as possible and even started Osprey, a nonprofit that helps families connect with others who are trying to keep their kids separated from smartphones.
“A lot of people are like, ‘You’re so naive,’ for thinking we can keep our kids off of social media and away from cell phones,” Erin wrote in an essay for TODAY. “But it’s not a forbidden fruit thing. We don’t intend to ever treat it that way for our girls. What we intend to teach them is that you can live the most incredible life, and you can do and see and be anything in the world, if you are not tethered to something fake.”
She continued, “This is us teaching our children: You deserve more. And you are capable of a whole lot more if you can skip social media and cell phones until you’re older. Until you’re ready, you’ll have your growing group of Osprey friends who are having the same low-tech adolescence.”
In an interview with CNN, she stressed the importance of beginning these practices when your children are young.
“You have to begin now,” she said. “Because phones become ubiquitous in about fifth grade. We’re learning, like, 80% of kids who are 10 years old have a smartphone. If you begin when your children are in kindergarten through fifth grade, and you start finding other families who have this same plan and belief in your kids could rely on each other, then they have social lives without social media. That is the goal.
Ben added, “And the whole point of Osprey, then, and building your nest, is that it eliminates the, you know, the discussion of ‘oh, well I’m the only kid that doesn’t have it.’ No, you’re not. We know for a fact that your friends don’t have it.”
“None of your friends have it. And that’s the goal,” Erin concluded.
The Marrses and Napiers are just two of the many families who are choosing to keep smartphones away from their kids and encourage their children to live their lives in the real world.
Read Next: Erin and Ben Napier to Help Parents Raise Children Without Social Media
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