Parents Are Hiring ‘Screen-Free Coaches’ to Help Keep Kids Off Their Devices
July 10th, 2019“Is there a ball somewhere? Throw the ball… kick the ball.”
Via: Global News:
It seems like some parents have forgotten what parenting was like before smartphones and tablets.
According to a recent article in the New York Times, some parents in the U.S. are hiring screen-free parenting coaches to help them raise phone-free children.
The trend, which is picking up in several U.S. states, allows these screen-free coaches to go into homes, schools and religious institutions to lecture parents on how parenting worked before screens.
“I try to really meet the parents where they are, and now often it is very simple: ‘Do you have a plain old piece of material that can be used as a cape?’” one coach told the site. “‘Is there a ball somewhere? Throw the ball… kick the ball.’”
Another parenting coach, Gloria DeGaetano, based in Seattle, told the site coaches in small cities can make up to US$80 an hour in small cities or rural areas and up to $250 in larger cities.
For the most part, coaches added, parents had forgotten what life was like before screens because they’re glued to their own devices.
When you work in any kind of consumer retail setting as I do, you really see just how much so many people pretty much live in their phones. It’s like the world immediately around them just stops existing, to observe their behavior.