Smartphones don’t make kids smarter
As schools are beginning to ban calls, many parents wonder whether smartphones are good for their children as mobile phones and laws are passed to ban them.
No brand – Lifestyle
Nostalgia of the 90s, which brought back cargo pants and flip phones, also fueled the millennial parenting trends of the 90s called Kid Summers.
The idea is to recreate the memories of a core childhood that is typical of the 1990s summer. For example, running through a sprinkler, drinking from a garden hose, or chasing an ice cream truck.
“Open your backyard there, give them a garden house and let them go to town,” says Kristin Gallant, a parenting expert behind Big Little’s emotions, in an Instagram video. “We do independent play, creativity, ride bikes and that from sunrise to sunset.”
According to the American Psychological Association, research shows that unstructured playtime can help build a healthy body, increase energy and reduce tension and anxiety.
But it’s not always possible to give kids the perfect 90s summer of 2025. Parents should not emphasize that, said Claire Barrotton, professor of human development and family studies at Michigan State University.
Children’s desire for summer in the 90s is likely a response to a parenting culture that seeks to overschedule children in summer activities to optimize their child’s development, she said.
“They are scheduled and use too much technology,” she said. “It’s a very reasonable response, but trying to solve it all one summer won’t work for either the kids or the parents.”
Many parents who work full-time rely on structured childcare, she said, unable to wrap their children around their frayed knees all summer long.
It is also important to find friends for your kids to play outside. Many families do not live in safe areas where other children live nearby. Instagram users created a similar point in comments about Gallant’s videos.
“Give me the economy of the 90s and the property prices of the 90s. See what I can do,” the user said.
But even if you have parents at home and your family lives in a safe and social neighborhood, Barrotton said that children’s summers in the 90s might not make sense. If children are not given unstructured freedom throughout the school year, they don’t know what to do with it during the summer.
“We can’t take this scheduled, tech-saturated life back for nine months of a year and switch to this absolute freedom,” she said. “We don’t prepare the kids for that…it can make them more unsettled.”
A full switch isn’t wise, but Vallotton said there are ways parents can ease their kids in the summer of their 90s by slowly limiting screen time, promoting more outdoor activities, and fostering opportunities for peer play with minimal supervision.
But that may not work for all families and parents.
“Social media is a tool for social comparison and self-judgment,” Barrotton said. “I challenge my parents to spend the summer of the 90s for myself and pause their use of social media.”
Adrianna Rodriguez can visit adrodriguez@usatoday.com.
