Kids and Phones

2026-01-12

Sometimes I give my phone to my kids, both the younger and older one and sometimes the younger one will walk around with it. He knows that it has some power but is not really sure what to do with it. The older one is much more keen about the phone, he likes taking photos of things, taking screenshots, coloring on the screenshots, turning up and down the volume, etc. He has learned things about my phone that I did not know.

Also I have a standard iPhone, and I only give the phone to my kids when it is locked.

The older one also does things that are a little more annoying. If I am listening to a podcast he will scroll a random parts of it, sometimes he will finish the episode all together and I will have to undo it. He will also sometimes blast music, turn my phone into airplane mode, or even turn it on ‘do not disturb’. These are more annoying since they change the state of my phone, I will miss some calls or texts, I will have to relisten to podcasts, etc.

I have thought about if I should remove some of these features from the lock screen, I assume I could entirely lock my phone making it useless to myself and my kids when it is locked, but that would make it harder for me to take photos, listen to podcasts, etc. I have decided on holding off for now.

But my conclusion is that my phone is no longer my personal phone. It is kind of a family phone now and sometimes my kids get to have a turn. I feel as an adult I was very used to having personal things, especially before I was living with my wife. Everything in the fridge was mine, my car was mine, my house was mine, etc. I used to have full control over how clean my house was, I kept it pretty clean, but no more. My wife uses our house, our two kids use our house, we throw parties, etc. I have a lot less control over my surroundings. And I now try to go with the flow, we will always have toys on the floor, if you ever come over I will apologize about the toys, but you know that is part of life with kids. Our cabinets will be overflowing with kid snacks, we have a bunch of alphabet magnets on our fridge, I often trip over toys, our weekends are filled with kids birthday parties.

If I lived alone my house would be different. If I lived alone my phone would never randomly be on airplane mode. But that is life, I just gotta double check when I have my phone that it is not in ‘do not disturb’ mode.

-Gary