Isn’t it Lovely to Have Better Screen Time? Special Guest: Andrea Davis

This episode is brought to you by Ignite Fitness Studio! Ignite is passionate about creating a space where everyone feels safe to bring their authentic selves, celebrating the beauty of diversity and believing that positive change must start from within! Check out Ignite at ignitefitness.studio or the MindBody App!

“I committed to my kids because I wanted to model it…as time passed, I realized…I would not be practicing better screen time if I had not had that conversation and committed to my kids.”

Isn’t it Lovely? Season 8 kicks off with Tracy and Rachel welcoming longtime dream guest and founder of Better Screen Time Andrea Davis to the show! Leaving guilt, shame, and fear at the door, Andrea instead educates and empowers listeners with countless tools, resources, and strategies to create technology habits that optimize enjoyment of screens in healthy ways. Andrea encourages families to establish routines and expectations for technology by creating a family tech plan, understanding the motivation of the three Cs (creating, connecting, and consuming), and having candid conversations about the responsibilities and personal accountability that precede a child having a phone. Andrea celebrates children being smart, curious, and human, recognizing the limitations of a one size fits all mentality and respectfully inviting kids into the reasoning and conversations behind decisions. Andrea and Rachel discuss a reconsideration of using screen time as part of a reward cycle; Tracy and Andrea explore the importance of identity and knowing oneself well enough to counteract social media messaging. Tracy and Rachel swoon over Andrea’s multiple book recommendations and mic drop moments, all while attempting to master the art of the mute button.

Episode Mentions:

• Andrea Davis’s Website: https://www.betterscreentime.com/

• Andrea Davis’s Instagram: @betterscreentime

• Andrea Davis’s Facebook: Better Screen Time

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

• iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood - and What That Means for the Rest of Us by Jean M. Twenge

• TED Talk by Psychologist Adam Alter: Why our screens make us less happy

• The Social Dilemma Documentary

• Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids - and How to Break the Trance by Nicholas Kardaras

• Reset Your Child's Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen-Time by Victoria L. Dunckley

What Are You Loving:

• Andrea: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer

• Rachel: Play-Doh

• Tracy: Artistry Dance

  Disclosure: We only recommend products we use, and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that add no additional cost to you; we may earn a small commission.

Andrea Davis is a former secondary education teacher turned screen-time-navigator. She is the founder of Better Screen Time where she shares family-tested ideas from the (tech) trenches as a mom of five. She is on a mission to help parents worry less about tech and connect more with their kids. Andrea is the author of Creating a Tech-Healthy Family and is certified by the Digital Wellness Institute. Andrea and her husband, Tyler, live in beautiful Hood River, Oregon where they love spending time outdoors as a family.