Screensnkids

The gaming industry is said to be worth the movie and music industry combined. While not all gaming is created equal, not all kids are created equal. My guest today battled gaming addiction, came out on the other side and went back in the battlefield to rescue other young people struggling to regain their lives again.  Cam Adair is the founder of Game Quitters - the world’s largest support community for video game addiction, serving 75,000 members in 95 countries. He also co-founded – Intenta – an internationally renown organization whose role is to equip professionals with resources on managing digital disorders. 

We had such a rich conversation on being on the receiving end of bullies, the role his parents played in going to the digital battlefield for him and how one night at the movies saved his life – literally. There was such a tenderness in this conversation and yet it was so empowering; There are resources for gaming support in the show notes and great advice Cam shared -  I hope you get some good nuggets here you can pass along.

#gamingaddiction#wholeheartedliving#intentadigital#digitalwellness#gamingindustry#e-sports#dopamine#camadair#gamequitters#MMORPG#preservetheearlyyears#gamingcommunity#fortnite#worldofwarcraft#minecraft#parentsupportgaming#


 RESOURCES
Game Quitters - https://gamequitters.com/
Join members in our community forums from over 95 countries. Meet like-minded people on the same journey as you.

Game quitters parents facebook group

Intenta Digital - www.intenta.digital.com
Drawing from diverse fields of mental health, addiction, technology and neuroscience, we synthesize and share the most up to date worldwide research on problematic digital use.

reSET Summer Camp for Gaming addiction - https://www.resetsummercamp.com/
Reset Summer Camp offers a fully immersive, clinical program hosted on a university campus, providing a fun-filled summer camp atmosphere. Participants are able to detox from their screen addiction and learn how to self-regulate, as they participate in individual and group therapy.

Books referenced:
Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

Quotes in episode:
Hard is Hard
The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances 

My guest Today Jenny Hoey -  was more than kind in sharing her daughters’ story after an encounter online that led her to start the group Not My Kid - a group focused on keeping kids safe online, with an emphasis on delaying exposure to screens.

She had such wisdom into how as parents we can be that soft landing spot and hold space for our kids to allow us into places that are so tender for them. We went deep from shame to normalizing difficult conversations and how child predators capitalize on kids innocence and curiosity.

My take home from this episode was connect, connect, connect. Connect with your kids online and offline. Big Tech is not going to protect our kids – they only have a voracious appetite for their attention.


“We have to be willing to sacrifice our time and attention to meet this generation in the trenches of the digital battlefield and pioneer a path forward together. The by-product of such sacrifice is a relationship forged in battle and love; it will not be shaken easily.” – Lisa Frost, The Fallacy of Neutrality.

#onlinepredators#childhoodpredators#digitalsafety#childwellness#connect#screensnkids#ChildrenOnlinePrivacyProtectionAct#preservetheearlyyears#childrensmentalhealth#

Resources:
Not my Kid - www.notmykid.com.au
Facebookgroup - Notmykid_ever

Protect Young Eyes - https://protectyoungeyes.com/
We show families, schools, and churches how to create safer digital spaces. We do this with a pretty great website, super fly presentations, and a unique learning app for parents who have ZERO free time

BARK Technologies - www.bark.us
Connect to 30+ platforms to monitor text messages, emails, and social activity for signs of harmful interactions and content.

Quotes :
– If we share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, our shame cannot survive. Shame loves secrecy, silence and judgment - Brenee Brown

My guest on todays podcast wrote a book that changed my outlook on how I interact with the outdoors. Like literally after I read her book I stopped whining and complaining each time we had to get those snow suits on the kids to get outside in the dead of Canadian winter months. If you have little ones, teenagers, anyone -  grab a copy of Linda McGurks book - There is no such thing as bad weather.

Her writing has been featured in Time magazine and in this conversation We reflected on her childhood in Sweden and the cultural shift she saw when she moved to Indiana. From outdoor cooking to adventure play & forest schools, she shared great insight on our attitude as parents towards the outdoors and why now more than ever we need our kids to embrace nature and all she has to offer. She is also working on a new book which I cannot wait for its release.

#friluftsliv#Scandinavianparenting#kids&screens#kids&outdoors#nature&kids#midsommar#Mulle#solfattig#udeskole#barnvargn#outdoorgear#nature#messyplay#riskyplay#thereisnosuchthingasbadweather#hygge#riskyplay#messyplay#forestschools#Swedishkids#preservetheearlyyears#LindaMcgurk#outdoorliving#getoutside#forestschools#allemanstratten#

Link to order book
https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Such-Thing-Bad-Weather/dp/1501143638/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=There+is+no+such+thing+as+bad&qid=1622088853&sr=8-1

Michael Jacobus has been a leader in the Summer Camp landscape for over 30 years. 3 years ago however, he started  the 1st summer camp program in the world to treat unhealthy screen time overuse and gaming addiction.

reSET Summer camp is a 4-week immersive program out of Santa Barbara, California where youth are hosted on university campuses to experience what life might be like after leaving home to attend college or just getting out on their own in an apartment.

At the camp, the kids learn basic life skills from as simple as boiling an egg to financial literacy. It was such a deep dive of a conversation - from the role of dopamine in gaming creation to the role of parents in either enabling or disabling excess gaming use. What I really loved was hearing about the spark return in kids eyes who had previously been gaming for hours on end. Take a listen

#reSETsummercamp#gaming#detox#addiction#Nintendo#Sega#Fortnite#Minecraft#Gamecoachacademy#worldofwarcraft#videogaming#mentalhealth#screensnkids#lifeskills&gaming#clinicalcampgaming#parentingteens#parentingwins#esports#persuausivedesign#gamers#dopamine#parentsofgamers#boyswhogame#girlsgametoo#preservetheearlyyears

Resources
www.resetsummercamp.com - Registration link etc

Books quoted
Boys Adrift - Leonard Sax  -The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men
https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Adrift-Epidemic-Unmotivated-Underachieving/dp/0465040829/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Boys+Adrift&qid=1621482340&sr=8-1

Kids are hardwired for a sense of novelty and new experiences. Travel meets this need and also their sense of wonder and imagination as they try new experiences, taste different food and meet new people. After having kids, (especially when they are young) travel becomes a lofty idea in the rearview mirror due to all the moving parts involved - but my guest has a different take.

 Jennifer Allen is a mum of three who is the founder behind Wonders Within Reach - a special needs based travel family organization.  Together with her husband and three kids - one who requires assistive devices to aid in his mobility, they hike bike and travel sharing in their experiences.

#screensnkids#travel&inclusion#disabilitytravel#faith&travel#preservetheearlyyears#travelkids#kidswhoexplore#wonder#travel#earlyyears#disabledtravel#inclusion#respite#kindness

Wonders Within Reach
https://wonderswithinreach.com/

Respite resources
A Mother's Rest:
A nonprofit, unique, nationwide, affordable respite & fellowship experience exclusively for parents & caregivers of loved ones with disabilities.https://www.amothersrest.org/

Nathaniels Hope:
Nathaniel's Hope was founded in 2002 after four-year-old Nathaniel Timothy Kuck relocated to Heaven. The organization celebrates kids with special needs (our VIPs) as well as educates and equips communities and churches to provide FREE respite care and programs to enrich the lives of VIP families. https://nathanielshope.org/

Quotes:
"Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see." 
"You either risk a no or you take a no."

Our first guest this season, is a dad of three who has been swimming with sharks and diving in bat caves as part of his research work, but what he says scares him the most is what kids are missing out on in their childhood by being constantly on devices.
Dan Riskin is an evolutionary biologist who produced an epic documentary at the height of the pandemic called, "Babies scroll before they can crawl." He was so kind in extending grace to parents as we try and  survive "pandemic parenting" - which some days has felt like I am gasping for air.

#screensnkids#fatherhood&science#pandemicparenting#fatherhood#screendetox#screenresearch#babiesscrollbeforetheycancrawl#CTV#DanRiskin#kidsbrainsonscreens#delaydevices#pandemicscreenstime#

Documentary:
Babies Scroll before they can crawl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SIxv1MNYvk&t=160s

Books Referenced:

Glow Kids - Nikolas Kardaras

The Enchanted Hour - The Miraculous power of reading aloud in the age of distraction


Quotes:
"Genetics loads the gun the environment fires the trigger." - Soania Mathur