When my children were young, and I was very busy taking care of them, and the house, and homeschooling some of them, if someone would have handed me a device that would have stopped them in their tracks and kept them occupied for hours so that I could get everything done on that very long list of things to do that I always had….I probably would have given them each a device.

So I understand why today’s children (including some of my grandchildren) are spending time on smartphones. But we’re seeing more and more evidence that smartphones are a very bad idea for children. They keep them from playing, which is how they learn. They keep them from using their imaginations, which is not a good thing. And now a recent study shows that children who use smartphones spend twice as long using them as talking to their parents.

This is logical, and alarming. The parent-child relationship must supersede all else in a young child’s life. This is how they learn the most important things they need to know: from their parents. Anything that interrupts that relationship needs to go.

It will be hard. I totally understand. Even though I haven’t raised a young child in decades, I remember what it’s like. But it’s time to admit that children should not be allowed to do anything with smartphones. These devices are too addicting, and they take children away from far more important things, like conversing with their parents.