My guest is Melanie Hempe, founder and speaker of ScreenStrong.org. ScreenStrong.org was created to empower families to reclaim their kids from toxic screens that include social media, video games and porn. She is also a retired RN and mom of four kids, one who overcame a severe addiction to video games. I invited Melanie on the podcast to share her personal journey and educate us how to help protect kids and families from the harmful effects of screens.

In this episode, Melanie and I discuss the following:

-Melanie’s personal parenting journey of navigating her oldest son through an addiction to video games

- #1 reason boys drop out of college?

- How this led to Melanie making changes in her family and creating ScreenStrong.org

- Screen culture is hurting our kids

- Parents must become empowered when it comes to their kids and screen use

- Parents think they can manage their kids screen use as they grow-up

- This is a dopamine addiction reward pathway problem

- How Melanie created a game free and porn free home

- The problem is kids are detaching from their families and real-world

- Kids think they can multitask and they simply can’t

- Screen use tears down their grit, problem solving skills and confidence

- Screen detox to get a kid to re-engage in their life

- Why social media companies declare age 13 as age appropriate? The answer does not have your child’s interest at heart, at all!

-  Kids are becoming more and more anxious and depressed

- The answer when a parent feels like their child will be left out socially if they don’t have access to screen time

- The real cost of addiction and mental health problems for kids

- Melanie’s mission to support parents to help kids grow up and thrive

 

Brought to you by ADHDKidsCanThrive.com. Thank you for listening and please share!

 

#adhd

#adhd parent support

#anxiety #depression #dysregulation #screentime #porn #socialmedia #videogames #addiction