Teen Screen Addiction: 6 Ways to Curb Your Teen’s Obsession

00:00:00 - Jenny GK
It's Tuesday.

00:00:01 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, it is, man. It's Tuesday, and it's the day after Memorial day. So hopefully we're all, what? Relaxed?

00:00:10 - Jenny GK
Ready for summer?

00:00:12 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:00:13 - Jenny GK
Tan.

00:00:14 - Caitlin Kindred
There we go. Tan, for sure. All right, well, we're so glad you're here today. We're following up on our screen time and social media episode, which was episode 111, by the way, by answering a listener question about screen time for their teenagers. Remember, we talked about screen time for adults and managing your own screen time, but this time they were like, hey, this is great. Let's help me with my teenager. So this episode is all focused on helping parents guide their teens towards healthy screen time habits.

00:00:43 - Jenny GK
Welcome to summer. This is our gift to you.

00:00:47 - Caitlin Kindred
Shove the screen in front of their face when you need a break. The end.

00:00:52 - Jenny GK
So, with me today is Caitlin, but we could call her Siri because she auto completes me.

00:00:59 - Caitlin Kindred
That's so cute. Heart. I love it. Look, I made the hearts come on the screen. Ah, the hearts are on the screen. Yep. And that's Jenny. She's my magically pliable alien. And I don't know if that works. You like outer space?

00:01:16 - Jenny GK
Oh, no, it.

00:01:17 - Caitlin Kindred
It.

00:01:17 - Jenny GK
It totally works. I'm thinking of the aliens from Toy Story. They're like squishy toys. They're pliable.

00:01:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes, yes. Yeah, I want to do a shout out real quick before we get into the real talk for the day. So this is from. I don't know their name, but here's the person's handle. VCJCG.

00:01:37 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:01:37 - Caitlin Kindred
On iTunes, or. I always call it iTunes because I'm old on CK & GK Podcast, but the review is five star, so thank you very much. It says I was hooked after one episode. As a soon to be parent, I love the energy of the show, and it's great to hear a perspective from people who work so closely with kids. The energy and connection between the hosts makes it feel fun and welcoming. Thank you so much.

00:01:59 - Jenny GK
What a nice one.

00:02:00 - Caitlin Kindred
Love that one. It was really sweet. Thank you for sharing that, and we hope you're still listening and shout out to you.

00:02:08 - Jenny GK
Yeah. Way to go.

00:02:09 - Caitlin Kindred
Let's start, huh?

00:02:10 - Jenny GK
Yes. Teens and screens.

00:02:13 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. Let me share the question.

00:02:15 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:02:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Or the dm I got. It was, I really appreciated the tips to help adults get off their phones. As someone who wants to stay off of my phone more, these tips are. Or these are tips I can use right away. But what about tips for my teenager, who is perfectly fine with their cell phone time and would use it even more if they could? Right? Like, we were sharing tips for adults who, like, want to curb their screen time. But now we're talking about teenagers who absolutely do not want to curb their screen.

00:02:44 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:02:45 - Caitlin Kindred
So such a great question. And they asked that they remain anonymous. I'm guessing, like, probably just a parent of someone who we might know. I don't know.

00:02:54 - Jenny GK
But yeah, they don't want their teen to know that they're asking this. Yeah.

00:02:59 - Caitlin Kindred
So the sources that I used for today are from your teenmag.com. and there's an article by Diana Simeon, and I'll link that in the show notes. There's also also waituntilathe.org has some great tips for getting your teenagers to kind of curb their cell phone use. So I'll be referencing those throughout. And again, you can find those links on the blog post for today's episode. So obviously, we know social media is super important to our teenagers. And I think a lot of parents sort of go the cell phone route early just because they want to be able to reach their kids.

00:03:33 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:03:34 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. Whenever. And we want them to be able to reach us. Right.

00:03:38 - Jenny GK
When we grew up, there were these things called payphones, pagers.

00:03:42 - Caitlin Kindred
Remember pagers?

00:03:43 - Jenny GK
Oh, or pagers. And, you know, I remember I would go to the mall, my mom would drop me off. I was like twelve. And whatever money I spent, I needed to save $0.50 so I could make a phone call at the end and say, okay, come pick us up.

00:03:56 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Or I would, like, plan it out ahead of time. Okay, mom. Where we'll be ready to leave it to come get us then at this door. And then that was it. Like, we didn't have a way to get in touch with her. And if you had a pager, I never had a pager, but if you had a pager, I never did either. You were, if you didn't have a phone nearby, like, page all you want, but you're not getting in touch with me.

00:04:17 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:04:18 - Caitlin Kindred
But I think given, especially after Covid with this, like, intense screen use, I think we've all seen sort of a pushback on having kids use screens as much as they were. So especially with the mental health concerns. And I want to definitely do a deep dive into that first. So to be fair, if you're prone to arguments with your teenager, my child is preparing me for this by already using logic to try and reason his way out of things. But there's a lot of good things about it. Right? Teenagers can stay in touch with their friends and their family even if they live far away. We used to encourage like, at least I did in my class. I don't know if you did, too, but any kid who had their phone, I would tell them, like, put a reminder on your phone, you have homework tonight. Like, just get to your phone right now. Right? So, reminders. Keeping track of important dates.

00:05:05 - Jenny GK
I used to put my notes on a class Instagram page when kids were using Instagram, and they could, when they scroll through their feed, they would see my notes for the day.

00:05:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Or I had a remind account where I would say, like, remember, you have homework tonight. And I would send the homework out and I would blast it to the kids and their parents. So there was no.

00:05:25 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:05:25 - Caitlin Kindred
So, you know, there's a lot of good there also. Like, they're going to have to know how to use them at some point. So practicing now. Practicing these 21st century skills are super important. Now you can contact your kid in case of an emergency. It's not like the old days where you had to have your own, like, separate camera. Now you can have a camera on your phone. So a lot of kids are using them to take pictures. And, you know, there's. There's a lot of benefits to all of this. Right? One device instead of multiple, et cetera. But of course, some of the academic and developmental concerns are really coming to a head here. So I did a deep dive into some of these, and some of them I hadn't even, like, thought about. But, oh, man, if you, and if you're listening to this episode, you're probably already very aware of these, but I do want to at least touch on them for people who haven't heard of some of them, like I hadn't.

00:06:13 - Jenny GK
Right?

00:06:14 - Caitlin Kindred
And developmental concerns. All right. Academically, data from the National Institute of Health shows that kids who spend more than 2 hours a day on screen got lower scores on thinking and language tests, which is not great. There is an addiction issue. Right. We talked about this with adults. Smartphone apps and social media are intentionally designed for people to use them for a long time because the longer you're on there, the more money that the platform makes. And there's ads and all these other, like, it's. It's intentional. It also messes with your physical health. Right. We're not sleeping. There's a higher likelihood of these developmental behavioral disorders that are coming about as a result of this. And social media has an especially strong influence on this. And we've seen horrible TikTok fads of kids doing massively destructive things. And that's not necessarily a behavior disorder, but that is causing behavioral problems that we do need to be mindful of. And there's also the mental health, I think, is even scarier. Right. The more time you're on social media, the more likely you are to be depressed. And we talked about this because of the social comparison piece. We've seen studies that show that psychological well being decreases in teenagers the more that they're on their phones.

00:07:31 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:07:31 - Caitlin Kindred
There's that constant stimulation piece that causes cortisol to rise. If you're not sure what cortisol is, it's a stress hormone. It has a time and place, but it shouldn't be during the day when your kid is sitting on the couch. They shouldn't be having cortisol spikes because it's a stress hormone and it's not good for you. It also prevents you from feeling calm. Right. It's intended to increase your anxiety and awareness so that you can prepare for fight or flight.

00:07:56 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:07:57 - Caitlin Kindred
There's the overall higher risk of exposure to content that's not appropriate for kids. Right.

00:08:05 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:08:05 - Caitlin Kindred
We know that there is a higher instance of body dysmorphia and other eating and body image disorders, especially in girls, the more time that they spend on social media. We don't want our kids exposed to violent content, sexual content that doesn't show enthusiastic consent or healthy sexual relationships. None of that is okay for our kids to be seeing.

00:08:31 - Jenny GK
I love this phrase, enthusiastic consent.

00:08:34 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, I'm glad you like it. It's not mine. I didn't coin it. Someone said enthusiastic consent, and I loved it. Yeah, I think it came out during. Me too.

00:08:43 - Jenny GK
Okay. It's good. It's really good.

00:08:46 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. So with all of these concerns, you add in this other one that's coming out a lot, which is cyberbullying. And I have some data here about cyberbullying. It says about one of every four children has experienced cyberbullying, and one out of every six has done it to another kid. Jeez, I had no idea it was that high. Nearly half of Uf teens have been bullied or harassed online.

00:09:12 - Jenny GK
And this is different than just, like, normal meanness?

00:09:14 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, yeah. No, this is like.

00:09:15 - Jenny GK
This is not.

00:09:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:09:17 - Jenny GK
This is a repeated behavior after it's already been addressed. This is targeting. It's not just saying something mean about your friend on the Internet, which kids shouldn't do, but it's not the same thing.

00:09:31 - Caitlin Kindred
No.

00:09:31 - Jenny GK
As passing a yucky note.

00:09:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. And only one in ten victims of cyberbullying will tell a parent or a trusted adult that it's happening. Wow, that's frightening. Right. So I can understand why parents would be like, let's chill out on the screens here. Right. So I want to get into some of those strategies, and again, wait till 8th has a lot of really good ones. And I kind of cherry picked a few of them here and compared them with that other website and a few others and sort of chose the ones that I felt like were in line with what we talked about for adults, but ones that seemed the most doable for me as a parent who has a child who is already lawyering his way in and out of things, and these seven. So I want to stress your goal of screen time with your teenager is to ensure that their overall lack of life experience and occasional not good choices, to use Jenny's phrase, their impulsivity and other things that teenagers are known for do not get them in trouble. Right, right. You're not trying to stop all screen use and shield them from every single thing. You're just trying to keep them responsible with it. So with that in mind, the first one that I saw is, if you can, if it's possible, resist rushing into a smartphone for your child. If the main reason for you to get them a cell phone is to communicate with you, there are other ways to go about doing that.

00:11:07 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:11:07 - Caitlin Kindred
So just consider the other ways that you can get in touch with your child. Smartwatches, flip phones if you have to, or like those, quote unquote smartphones that have like four apps on them or whatever, like.

00:11:19 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:11:20 - Caitlin Kindred
If your primary concern is communication, there's other ways to do that without calling the school and blowing your child up about whatever stuff, so.

00:11:28 - Jenny GK
Right. And this wait till 8th movement is not for communication, it's just for access to smartphones. This movement is not opposed to giving your fifth grader a phone because she has practice after school and there's not a phone in the gym.

00:11:45 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. No, this is about. In particular, I think it's about social media usage.

00:11:50 - Jenny GK
It's access to social media, but there's more to it.

00:11:54 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. It's not just 8th grade. I feel like the most intense pressure to get a cell phone happens in middle school. You know, I'm certain of that. I've seen it with our students. But even after 8th grade, we do have some strategies to address that. Now, if you can't hold off or, you know, you've already let the genie out of the bottle, you need to set boundaries and expectations. Right. Work together with your teenager to establish clear screen time limits for different devices. The reason I say work together is because you can't just mandate this on a teenager. They're going to push back on it. And if you make it be a joint conversation, you're going to listen to their perspective and you're going to come up with a solution that's more fair for, for them, at least, they perceive as more fair and you're more likely to get buy in. This is why teachers use the class to come up with class rules. You're creating buy in and you're making them have the ownership of this class.

00:12:52 - Jenny GK
Yeah, it's ownership.

00:12:53 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:12:53 - Jenny GK
And like we've talked about on several different episodes, it is never too late.

00:13:01 - Caitlin Kindred
Nope.

00:13:02 - Jenny GK
You can say I have done some research and I've changed my mind about this.

00:13:07 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:13:08 - Jenny GK
You are the adult and you have the right to change your mind about what expectations or rules you want to set in place together as a family.

00:13:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. And I love that phrase of, I've been doing some research or I learned something new.

00:13:22 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:13:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:13:22 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:13:23 - Caitlin Kindred
Along those lines, discuss device free zones and times like the bedroom, because you don't want your kid using their phone in private and doing things that they should not be doing. The dinner table, family outings. It's up to you to decide when it's right to do that. We have time limits on our son's devices so that he can only use them at certain times of day, and he can only use them when he's in our space. He can't use them in his room by himself. So I think that's a totally appropriate way to go about that. You guys figure out what works best for you. Charge the kids phones in a common area at night. Take the phone out of the room at night, your kid will sleep better and you'll know that they aren't using it.

00:14:11 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:14:12 - Caitlin Kindred
Put it in a place where they can't access it.

00:14:14 - Jenny GK
And when you and I were growing up, it's not like we were on the regular phone with our friends at 11:00 at night on a school night.

00:14:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:14:23 - Jenny GK
I remember if I wanted to get a phone call that late, I would have to call the time and temperature lady or mister movie phone and wait for call waiting to click over so that my parents wouldn't hear the phone ring because they would answer it and say, no, she can't talk this late.

00:14:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Right? Oh, so bad. The other thing is, too, with a teenager, if you take their phone and you charge it at a common place, but then you have your phone late at night, they're going to throw that in your face. So maybe it's a family rule where everyone charges their phone in the same place at night and. And everyone has to turn off their phones at a certain time of night. It's just something to think about. Use consequences to enforce the expectations that you've put in place. Technology, especially smartphone. Yes, it's a necessity in a lot of ways, but it isn't a necessity for a teenager. It's a privilege. It's not a right. If they're having a hard time putting the phone away when you ask or there's other behavior problems that you're seeing, take it away. You can take it away temporarily. You can say, okay, now instead of using it, you know, this time to this time I've shortened your time frame or whatever. We once had a parent who asked in the middle of a parent meeting, what do I do? How do I take her phone away if I do? If she loses her snap streak, she's going to lose her mind. And I was like, who cares? Who cares?

00:15:45 - Jenny GK
I remember this. And the mom said that she was paying someone to keep up the snap streak while she was on phone restriction.

00:15:53 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. Who cares? You're the parent. Take it away from them. It sucks. They're going to be mad at you. Weren't you mad at your parents when you were a teenager? Sometimes. We've all been there. Deal with it. If it sucks, you're the adult. Like, you can do this. The other thing is be prepared for those rules to change over time. Right. What's appropriate for a 13 year old is not appropriate for a 15 year old or a 17 year old or an 18 year old.

00:16:19 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:16:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Some flexibility here is going to be really with those boundaries and expectations, not with your consequences, but with your expectations.

00:16:27 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:16:27 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay. I'm going to go back to that communication piece because I think this really matters. You need to have open communication about your screen time. Talking about it can help clarify why your child wants to use the phone so much. Encourage these honest conversations and you can be honest about your use as well. And you're going to stress to your teenager that the expectation is that they won't do anything online or by text that they wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with you. You're going to also tell them that you're following them.

00:16:59 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:17:00 - Caitlin Kindred
You're monitoring their usage. You can say if you feel it's necessary, you'll spot check their email or their texts. You're not going to lurk, you're not going to stop. You're not going to read every single thing. Don't comment on your teenager's status updates. Don't comment on pictures. Just look. And then have the conversation in private if it's needed. Ask them about other things like their experiences with Fomo, if there's any online relationships, if there's someone they're dming who they don't exactly know but they met online, like, ask those questions. It's completely to cry a little bit. It's your job.

00:17:46 - Jenny GK
Yeah, it is your job.

00:17:47 - Caitlin Kindred
The other thing is, this one really, really hit me really hard. You might have a kid who is pushing back on a consequence as like, a one time thing. Normally they'd be like, yeah, okay, fine, I know it's time to get off, but this time they're like, no. Like, please just let me keep it for a little bit. And you don't know why it's okay to say, like, why are you on your phone right now? What's going on? And if you say, tell me what's happening, you might actually get some really good answers. Maybe there's a friend who's completely losing their mind. They're distressed about their parents or something like that. Maybe they have game notifications that they have not turned off yet and candy crush is just calling their name right now. Maybe they're escaping from something or they're just doom scrolling because they need a chance to be a vegetable. Ask those questions to try and figure out why they're on their phone before you start enforcing all of these consequences and all of these expectations. It will help you understand where your child is coming from and then come to a more, again, more fair ownership of screen time responsibility. All right, the next one, parents, this one is for you. We talked about this in episode 111. Model moderation. Find space for face to face conversations. Put down your phone during a conversation with your spouse. Put down your phone during mealtime. Put down your phone on a car ride.

00:19:08 - Jenny GK
Oh, I'm bad in the car.

00:19:09 - Caitlin Kindred
I'm bad in the car, too. If I'm a passenger, I'm probably on my phone.

00:19:13 - Jenny GK
Yeah, yeah. I'm really bad if I'm the passenger. And John calls me out for it all the time and I'm like, what are we doing? We're just driving somewhere. I should be a better model.

00:19:23 - Caitlin Kindred
Consider describing why you're on your phone. I'm looking up directions to the party.

00:19:28 - Jenny GK
Oh, you know what? We do that in adult social circles.

00:19:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:19:34 - Jenny GK
We're in a season right now where I've just been finishing up some parent teacher conferences and my laptop is open, and I start the conversation with, if it's okay with you? I'm just going to take some note. Yeah, I'll just be here typing. And it's like I feel the need to explain to adults what I'm doing. Why would I not tell kids, right?

00:19:50 - Caitlin Kindred
I've even said to Sam, like, I'm going to look at videos of puppies right now, like, I need something cute and then I'll, you know, bring him in to enjoy it with me or whatever. But just telling them why I think makes a big difference. So that they know you're not just like on your phone all the time, you're actually doing it with a purpose. And another good thing that you should do is consider excusing yourself. If you have to interrupt a family moment to answer a phone call or to check your phone, you don't need to do it in front of everybody else because then your teenager is going to look and be like, well, they're on their phone in front of everybody else. All right. There's alternative things to do besides be on your phone. Encourage your teenager to engage in activities in the 3d world. Real life connections, right? There's even a club that I just read about. There's a girl who's a teenager who started a movement, the anti smartphone movement. I forget. Oh, man. I have to look it up. Maybe I can find it and add it to the blog post for this episode. But she, she and all of her friends are getting flip phones so that they encourage each other to go outside and spend time together. And remember, if communication is your main reason for having a device, find another way to communicate with your kid and encourage them to go and do things. Highlight the importance of physical activity, of healthy sleep habits. Again, it's good for you to do it, too. So just keep that in mind. And if your child is at all receptive to mindfulness practices, I would highly encourage you to do those together. Thinking about your thinking and thinking about your feelings. It's good, right?

00:21:26 - Jenny GK
One of the things that Abby and I are going to do this summer is a weekly writing date. But not at home. We'll go somewhere fun. And at the same time, every week, we're going to make space for the two of us to write and edit together.

00:21:41 - Caitlin Kindred
I love it.

00:21:42 - Jenny GK
And so I think it's going to help us stay connected. It's going to make school work over the summer social in nature and special. And it's screen free time.

00:21:55 - Caitlin Kindred
Totally. So the last piece of this is just try your best to embrace what teenagers love. Now, I think that we're speaking to a generation of people who are down with memes and Internet culture.

00:22:10 - Jenny GK
Right?

00:22:10 - Caitlin Kindred
I mean, you and I have a steady meme chat that goes, it's like.

00:22:16 - Jenny GK
95% of our friendship, no big deal.

00:22:18 - Caitlin Kindred
I think it's 95% of most people's friendship at this point is like, I can text you like my life is falling apart and then send you a funny meme within three minutes. Yeah, but if there's something like that that your child loves, do it. If your kid loves memes, send them a funny meme during the day. Do something to make that connection. That's fine, right? As long as it's during their screen time and they're not, you know, they're not going to get in trouble for checking their phone during the school day. Send it to them, it's fine. Or save it and send it to them later. Show it to them on your phone, whatever you need to do.

00:22:50 - Jenny GK
Enter their world in a way that fits.

00:22:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes, exactly. It can feel like technology causes a lot of problems, and I listed a bunch of those out. But there's a real opportunity for you to bond with your child, so don't miss those opportunities here and there. All right, so recapping here's what you're going to do to herb your teenager's screen time. You're going to try to resist rushing in if you do already have a device or when you get the device, you're going to set boundaries and expectations. You're going to have open communication about this. You're going to model moderation as an adult. You're going to promote other alternatives to screen time, and you're going to try and find ways to connect by embracing what your kid loves about technology. I have all of the links to these in the blog post for this episode.

00:23:42 - Jenny GK
Amazing.

00:23:42 - Caitlin Kindred
There's a few things here. Yeah. There's common sense media. There's a link to how to moderate the screen time on your iPhone or iPad. So I have that. And I also have one that's called Family Link and that's for Android users, if you're an Android user. And then there's also, remember that app called one sec that you can use to promote limited screen time, maybe for yourself or for your kid. And then I also tried out another one called clear space. That one is paid after the week or something like that, but it does make you stop. And, and then it says, like, how long are you going to be on social? Are you going to be on for ten minutes or 30? And I have not opened up two of the apps since using it. So I'm very proud of that.

00:24:23 - Jenny GK
Wow. That is giving. To sound like a kid. That is giving the freezing your credit card in a block of ice.

00:24:32 - Caitlin Kindred
Kind of is, isn't it?

00:24:34 - Jenny GK
Do you remember when that was a thing? People would be like, oh, you just freeze your credit card in a block of ice and you have to wait for the ice to melt before you can buy something with it.

00:24:42 - Caitlin Kindred
I had a roommate who used to put her rent money in the freezer. Not in a block of ice, but she would put her rent money in the freezer. Out of sight, out of mind. That's the hope, right? Okay. Again, there's other resources I have, too, so, yeah, I think I listed, like, four other ones, so there's tons here. Please go to the blog post for this episode and get all of them there to read up on what you can do about cyberbullying, telling if your kid is ready for a cell phone, if you're a teacher, how to use them in the classroom effectively. There's ways to do all of this.

00:25:14 - Jenny GK
Man. You did so much research for us. Thank you.

00:25:17 - Caitlin Kindred
I'm really trying to be professional sometimes. Let's take a break. For links to resources mentioned in this episode, head on over to ckpodcast.com blog to find everything you need and be sure to follow us on social media. Head over to your favorite social media network and find us at ckngkpodcast. And now back to the show.

00:25:41 - Jenny GK
Okay, we're back.

00:25:42 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:25:42 - Jenny GK
And it's time for us to share what's been going on in our lives.

00:25:48 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:25:48 - Jenny GK
Starting with what we're obsessed with. And I appreciate the irony that the episode is about screen time and I'm about to talk about a tv show. It's fine.

00:26:01 - Caitlin Kindred
Do it.

00:26:02 - Jenny GK
I am so obsessed with for all mankind. I have talked about this on the show before. It is the Apple tv alternative history show about the Russians landing on the moon first.

00:26:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Right? Okay.

00:26:16 - Jenny GK
So we just bit the bullet and watched the end of season four.

00:26:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:26:21 - Jenny GK
And of course, I, like, look at John immediately. And I was like, is there a season five?

00:26:26 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:26:27 - Jenny GK
Do they keep going? And so he says, okay, don't look up anything. I I will try and look at the Internet and see if I can find something without any spoilers. So he did find an article that was okay for me to read. It has been picked up for a fifth season, and they've created a spin off. The writers of the show are genius. They have created a spinoff that tells the same alternative history storyline from the point of view of the Russians.

00:26:54 - Caitlin Kindred
Smart.

00:26:56 - Jenny GK
So we're going to get to go back to the sixties and this romantic time and you know, you know that I love that time in space history. We're going to go back to that same alternative timeline and start with the Russians landing on the moon first and what their space program and cosmonauts and their life was like behind the curtain.

00:27:17 - Caitlin Kindred
That's going to be amazing. You're totally going to nerd out over that for sure.

00:27:21 - Jenny GK
Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

00:27:23 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay, so I don't know why this didn't occur to me, especially as someone who works in social, but there's programs you can use that will automatically monitor your comments for you on social media.

00:27:38 - Jenny GK
That's so cool, right?

00:27:40 - Caitlin Kindred
I'm like, oh, my God, we're living in the future. So anyway, I've set it up so that if you want to listen to an episode and there's something that you've missed or something like that, and you find one of our posts online, you can comment on the post with, like, episode or headphones or microphone, and it'll send you a dm to the episode link with the link. So it's, if you want to listen to the episode, just comment on one of the posts with, like, episode and it'll pop up and give you the link so you can go and. And check all that if you're scrolling online and you just.

00:28:09 - Jenny GK
It's amazing.

00:28:10 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. So fun.

00:28:11 - Jenny GK
Like, this wasn't even invented before.

00:28:14 - Caitlin Kindred
No, I, like, I know this sounds so dumb, but, like, doesn't sound dumb.

00:28:20 - Jenny GK
So many things have happened in our life.

00:28:22 - Caitlin Kindred
I know. It doesn't sound dumb at all. It really doesn't.

00:28:25 - Jenny GK
This didn't even exist.

00:28:27 - Caitlin Kindred
I know. It's what makes our generation so cool.

00:28:29 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:28:30 - Caitlin Kindred
We didn't have to worry about social media when we were kids, but now we're all about it.

00:28:36 - Jenny GK
But now we have it. Okay, well, my gem of the week is definitely me being a nasty little mom.

00:28:45 - Caitlin Kindred
Uh oh.

00:28:46 - Jenny GK
Abby won her flag football league, so she's got two giant football rings now. But the gem part is not that she won, it's that her team beat a team that has a really nasty coat to the point that, like, a mom from the team that lost to this other team stayed for our game just to watch the Dolphins lose.

00:29:14 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh. Whoa.

00:29:16 - Jenny GK
She was like, I'm rooting for y'all because I really want this team to not win.

00:29:21 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, my gosh. I kind of love that mom, by the way.

00:29:25 - Jenny GK
Right?

00:29:25 - Caitlin Kindred
That's a level of petty. I am here for love it.

00:29:29 - Jenny GK
The guy was, like, yelling at his girls. And remember, this is like a 14 U league, right? Like, these are twelve and 13 year old girls.

00:29:36 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:29:37 - Jenny GK
He was yelling at his girls to the point that John started yelling across the field to the coach. These are twelve year old girls. Don't talk to them that way.

00:29:47 - Caitlin Kindred
Who does that?

00:29:49 - Jenny GK
Oh, the coach was like, I'll coach my team, you coach yours. And he's like, I'm not coaching your team, I'm coaching you.

00:29:54 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, my gosh.

00:29:56 - Jenny GK
And at this point, John takes his hat off and I'm like, oh, my God, my husband's gonna get in a fight.

00:30:02 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:30:02 - Jenny GK
At a high school football stadium. Over twelve year old girls flag.

00:30:07 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, my gosh.

00:30:09 - Jenny GK
This coach was a jerk. But Abby's team won, so.

00:30:13 - Caitlin Kindred
Yay. Yay. Okay, well, mine is my child once again, just being too grown up. So we're planning birthday party, and I am always of the mindset that, like, please don't bring a gift. He has so much stuff. He gets stuff from everybody. He does not need more presents. We just want you guys to show up and celebrate him. So I told our son, as we're planning this party, we're not. We're not asking for gifts.

00:30:41 - Jenny GK
Right?

00:30:42 - Caitlin Kindred
And he was like, well, you did that last time. And I was like, yeah, we did. We said, please don't bring gifts. And he looked at me and he goes, and yet they did.

00:30:52 - Jenny GK
Oh.

00:30:53 - Caitlin Kindred
I was like, all right, well, maybe somebody will bring you a present, but you are such a snot. And yet they did. Who? What? That is hilarious what seven year old says. And yet.

00:31:06 - Jenny GK
And yet they did. Okay, he sounds like he's narrating young Sheldon, right?

00:31:13 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, this is what I mean when I say my child is, like, already practicing his lawyer skills.

00:31:19 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:31:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Boy. All right.

00:31:22 - Jenny GK
All right, y'all, we did it in like you're supposed to make good choices. Tell your friends.

00:31:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Share the episode with a friend of yours who you think would listen and enjoy and not leave a bad review.

00:31:37 - Jenny GK
Maybe even leave a good one, but not a bad one is what we need.

00:31:42 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. But mostly, I just want you to share with your friends. Somebody will love this episode and really needs it. So, as Jenny said, she said, make good choices already. So I'm just going to say and limit your screen time. Use screen time responsibly. How about.

00:31:57 - Jenny GK
Oh, I like it.

00:31:58 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay, bye.