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It's back to school time and that means another year to tell your children to st

op texting and get back to school work, or pop your head into their bedroom only
to find your tween under the sheets texting. Maybe you grow weary of barking ab
out video game play when homework or chores should be getting done. Well, before
you're completely stressed out this school year by your child's lack of focus,
we've got some easily actionable tips to help you protect the children and yours
elf against technology overload.
1. No gadgets in the bedroom. This rule serves multiple purposes. On the one han
d, you won't have to worry about children playing handheld video games all night
and once they're old enough to experience "puppy love" you don't have to deal w
ith a lovestruck teen texting into the wee hours of the morning. On the other ha
nd, cellular devices do emit radio frequency energy and it's just a nice precaut
ion to have those in another room when your children and their developing brains
are sleeping. No proven science here, just a dads caution. In our home we have
a central area which is setup like a charging station and all cellphones are pla
ced there at bedtime.
2. Be bold and place limits on video game play during the week. If you find your
son(s) easily distracted by their video games, you might try something I've fou
nd to be very effective in my own home: no video games Monday through Thursday.
I found that my sons were rushing through their homework to get to the games. Gr
ades suffered as a result and the kibosh was put on game play during the week. I
f your children are able to maintain grades and play games, you may consider pla
cing time restrictions on non-homework related computer time or video game play.
3. Just like the video games, the texting can be a great impediment to children
taking care of responsibilities like chores and homework. If you're home with yo
ur children after school, have them hand over their phones until homework is com
pleted. If you're not home you can ask them to place their phones in another roo
m (like yours, or even theirs) while they do their homework. If you have childre
n motivated to test boundaries - and who doesn't - you can utilize cellphone mon
itoring apps like Mobile Watchdog or Smobile Systems Parental Controls to check
the times that messages are sent to keep children honest and inline when the tem
ptation to text gets the best of them.
4. If you have a middle schooler who has a cellphone, another thing from my pers
onal playbook that you might try is blocking the ability to text until the first
progress report comes out. This tells your children that texting is a privilege
and not a necessity and must be earned by starting the school year out strong.
If that first progress report doesn't meet whatever standard you've set for scho
lastic achievement then the texting stays off. If it does, then the child gets t
heir texting turned back on. All the carriers will allow you to add or take off
texting plans AND block texting messages from coming into our going out of a par
ticular line at your request. Just call them up and explain what you're doing an
d make sure they've noted that on your account in case the CSR doesn't do it pro
perly and you get pay-per-text charges and have to call back and have texting bl
ocked properly. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, personally.
5. This tip isn't necessarily about making sure they do homework but it will hel
p keep drama in the home to a minimum. No allowing other children to borrow your
children's video games. Children, your own and others, have a way from time to
time of "misplacing" video games. This can sometimes cause a fuss between brothe
rs and between friends, so until they're older and more responsible with their t
ech devices, no loaning out games or borrowing them. Trust me on this one. It ca
n save you a decent amount of headache if you have more than one son and save yo
u a few dollars to replace a game if your little one is a little forgetful.
6. See our article on setting up a separate user login on Windows Vista or Windo
ws 7 and check back soon for our "how to" for the Mac users. Keeping a separate
login for your children that is focused on homework and actually blocks applicat
ions and websites which distract children when they're trying to get homework do
ne will go a long way to helping your little ones stay focused.
What are some of the steps you take to ensure that your children's gadgets don't
get in the way of their grades or chores?

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