HGTV Star Shares Her Tips to Keep Kids Tech Free at School
By Movieguide® Contributor
HGTV Erin Napier is grateful for her older daughter’s school accommodating her and husband Ben’s wishes to keep their children social media and mobile device free.
“Our school is awesome and understands (I mean we’re the weird parents who started #ospreykids) and let us pick her up early on digital education days,” Erin said in an Instagram Story earlier this week. “[I] love that so much. we use that time to go to daddy’s woodshop or play on the farm or do art at home.”
Napier posted a video of one of those screen-free activities her kids enjoy — painting!
“Always leave a heavy mug of water, typing paper, brushes and cheap watercolors out on a table somewhere in your house and watch your kids paint every single day,” she wrote. “We’ve been doing this since Helen was old enough to hold a paint brush. You’ll be amazed at how neat they keep it!”
The HOME TOWN star says that screen time for her two daughters — Helen, 6, and Mae, 3 — is limited to FaceTime with their grandparents. For Napier, “tablet use at school is in direct opposition to our family culture in a way that feels unhelpful.”
Napier also encourages other parents who are interested in their kids receiving a “low-tech education” to reach out to their school’s administration and “share the facts that are becoming increasingly apparent: it doesn’t benefit most students until they’re older, and then in limited amounts.”
The designer and author answered some of her follower’s questions regarding kids’ screen time.
One parent looking to ditch their kid’s screen time asked what the couple does to keep their little ones occupied on long car rides.
“[W]e keep books and magnetic drawing boards in the backseat pockets and let them pick the songs we listen to,” Napier replied. “[W]e also didn’t let them listen to music we didn’t like too, so no ‘Baby Shark,’ but the Disney classics and 6os-9os singer songwriters.”
Another follower shared concern about parents being able to take their kids out of school early on days where the curriculum is tech-focused.
“A little pushback here. What about the parents who don’t have flexible jobs that allow time for picking up kids early?” another person asked. “I homeschooled my kids and had to check my privilege numerous times. Food for thought.”
“I work full time. [W]e are lucky to have an awesome sitter and grandparents who can pick her up early,” the 39-year-old responded.
The Napiers are so passionate about the effects of screen time on children that they founded Osprey Kids which advocates for social media-free childhoods until high school graduation.
“When adolescents have no access to social media, they gain access to deeper engagement with their families, interests and self assurance,” the Osprey Kid’s website about page reads. “When we change the culture around ‘everyone has it except my child’ by linking arms with other parents in our communities and committing to embargo social media together beginning in the elementary grades, we set our children up for success before peer pressure can take it from them.”
Erin shared what initially got her and Ben to decide to keep their daughters off of social media. Movieguide® reported:
“When my daughter Helen, who’s now five, was very young, I posted a picture of her, and someone criticizes the way she looked,” Napier recalled. “It made me see red. It made my blood boil.
“And it seems like the criticism always comes from other women. It feels like betrayal when a fellow mother has the gall to criticize your child or your parenting,” she noted.
After that experience, Napier discussed social media with her husband, Ben Napier, and they decided they would keep their children off of technology in general, especially social media.
“We don’t want our kids to be disconnected. We always have said, ‘We’ll get landlines so they can call each other, and then when they’re old enough to drive, we’ll get them flip phones, and they can call and text each other,” she said.
“When they can drive, I hope to give them a phone with capabilities to play whatever music they like,” she explained. “That seminal teenage moment of independence—driving a car while playing that perfect song for the first time—is an experience I can’t wait for our girls to have.”
