As a parent, you likely spend a lot of time worrying and supporting your child’s mental health, but in doing so, you can easily forget about your own. While there are increasingly more discussions about children’s well-being in the digital age, what gets overlooked are the parents who have to carry the large burden of keeping their kids safe.
Big tech companies, like Apple and Snapchat, do very little to help keep kids safe on their platforms. But as it stands now, the bulk of the responsibility falls on parents like you. This can lead to a very significant and very common experience of digital fatigue.
If this is something you feel you’ve struggled with, we’re here to tell you that you’re not alone. We also want to provide some perspective and tips on how to push back against the pull of digital burnout. We hope this post helps you feel not only seen but also empowered to parent in this digital world.
What Is Digital Fatigue?
Digital fatigue is simply the experience of feeling emotionally exhausted from managing screens in your home. For many parents, much of the tech world is an unfamiliar experience, as we didn’t grow up with smartphones or social media. This unfamiliarity is what can quickly breed confusion and feeling overwhelmed for tons of parents.
Additionally, the online world moves fast — incredibly fast. New apps, trends, slang, sites, and devices are constantly coming in and out of popularity, sometimes on a daily basis. While kids seem to stay afloat of each new wave in the digital water, many parents feel they can barely keep their head above water to know what’s popular and — more importantly — what’s a potential danger.
Common Signs of Digital Overload
Have you ever heard about a new app or device coming out, and the thought of it immediately made you roll your eyes? Or maybe sparked a level of worry or anxiety in you? You’re not alone. That’s a very common feeling for parents experiencing digital overload. Here are some other common signs if you’re experiencing digital fatigue:
- Irritability or short temper
- Brain fog or difficulty concentrating
- Trouble sleeping
- Avoiding digital tools altogether
- Feeling overwhelmed by every new app or trend
- Emotional shutdown when kids bring up screen-related issues.
The Emotional Seesaw of Guilt and Pressure
Another acute experience of digital overload in parents is the internal struggle it creates, almost like an emotional seesaw: On one side, there’s the deep desire to keep your child safe and protected. On the other hand, there’s pressure to stay current and in control. The result of this teetering back and forth can be immense emotional turmoil and guilt if you feel like you’re choosing one over the other.
You might feel a lot of pressure to allow your child to have the same technology as other kids (you likely don’t have to look very far to see most kids have all kinds of access to the online world). But it almost seems that as soon as you allow your child to have that access, you suddenly get hit with a sense of guilt. Maybe it’s because you discover your kids are using an app you had no idea they even downloaded, or because of those moments you let your kids have extra screen time just cause it gave you a break. Either way, the tension between that guilt and pressure is real and way more common than you think.
Build Healthy Digital Boundaries for Your Family
So the question becomes, what can parents do to avoid digital burnout? Well, as with most things, by creating boundaries and finding moderation. Unless you’re planning on going off-grid and swearing off all screens forever, then you’re going to have to find a healthy, balanced relationship with tech for you and your kids. It’s important to know it’ll take time and likely lots of trial and error, but we’re here to tell you that it’s possible! So here are some tips to get you started.
Establish a consistent screen time schedule
Create routines that help your whole family have tech-free times. This could be during dinner, before bed, and on weekend outings. These help reset your brain and remind the whole family that not everything has to be online.
Pro tip: Use the Do Not Disturb feature on your phone to ensure you don’t get any non-urgent notifications. This ensures that tech-free time is also distraction-free!
Limit your own screen time use
It’s an age-old fact that kids copy what they see. By managing your own screen time habits, you can cause a ripple effect of healthy boundaries with tech in the whole household.
Find ways for tech to be fun or helpful
Another old-school tip: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. While tech can be intimidating, it can also be used to your advantage, which will make your relationship with tech drastically more healthy. You could use tech to encourage productivity in the home through chore apps or reminders. Or, you could use it for family bonding time, such as Mario Kart tournaments with the kids or listening to an educational podcast on the way to school.
Strategies to Take Care of Your Mental Health
Don’t forget to prioritize your own mental health while you work to protect your kids. It’s easy to overlook this, but avoiding burnout is more likely when you slow down to take care of yourself. Here are some things to keep the right mindset.
Setting realistic expectations
Remember that progress — not perfection — is the goal here. You don’t need to know everything and have it all figured out. Taking small steps, such as understanding the core apps your child uses, is a great place to start. Then, you can continue taking small and significant steps from there.
Know that you’re not alone
If there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that tons of parents have had real experiences with this digital fatigue. The reason we know this is because of our Facebook group, Parenting in a Tech World. This group has over 600k members — all of whom are parents looking for much-needed advice to keep their kids safe in this digital world. There are stories, support, and encouragement shared on a daily basis. So whether it’s parents you know in your personal life or it’s a Facebook group like ours, make sure you connect with other parents that you can relate to.
Consider therapy
There comes a certain point where stress and anxiety become too much to handle on our own. A mental health professional can help you process and manage your anxiety in a way that’s specific to your situation.
How Bark Can Help
At Bark, we understand how difficult it is to parent in this digital age — and that’s exactly why we exist. We’re here to help lighten the load with tools that give you peace of mind in your child’s online safety. And our toolbox is comprehensive — we offer content monitoring to keep up with potential dangers online, screen time schedules to encourage a healthy relationship with screens, and kid-safe devices that have our controls built in. Not to mention our endless resources of expert advice to take the guesswork out of what your child is encountering online.
Explore Bark’s variety of products, including the Bark Phone, the Bark Watch, the Bark app, and the Bark Home, to find out which one is the best fit for your family.
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Bark helps families manage and protect their children’s digital lives.
