I have 2 teens at home. The younger one I have no worries about. The elder one I worry about.
She is constantly connected but at the cost to the rest of her family. I know this is all part of being a teenager but the phone adds another dimension to when I was one.
She is a good child, never bad mouths me and is excelling in school (16 years old) but she is just never present...ever! Even if we force her to come out with us the headphones go in. We now ask her to leave the phone at home on the rare occasions but it is like a withdrawal for her. She is also very lazy around the house (constantly in bed on her phone)
On occasion I have taken the phone off of her but I don’t want to control her, I want to encourage a healthy relationship with her technology. And all this does is cause her to be nice until she gets it back and then we go back to sully and allusive behaviour. She is not willing to interact with her siblings on any level at all. Again I know all of this can be seen as typical teen but it is hard to get through when their phone is constantly in their hand.
So I am just wondering how others have dealt with this. If it is seen as part of growing up, if you have had to step in on their usage? Or do you leave them be?