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Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nR<\/span>emember when summer break felt endless? The next school year was an incomprehensibly distant prospect as hot, sunny days spent idling in the yard seemed to last forever. With no smartphones, no YouTube, and nothing but a landline to call your friends, you were left to your own devices \u2014 which mostly meant flipping through books, rearranging your Beanie Babies, or fighting with your siblings over who got the last Freeze Pop.<\/p>\nNow, nostalgia-seeking parents are looking back on those long, lazy, uneventful days with surprising fondness \u2014 and trying to recreate that same unplugged boredom for their own kids. Ironically, some influencers are using social media platforms like Instagram to promote the idea of a screen-free, \u201c\u201890s summer.\u201d Shannele, known on Instagram as @reelmomstuff, has been sharing tips for raising \u201c\u201890s kids\u201d for over a year. In a video she posted in June, she explains her no-screens-in-the-car rule and emphasizes the importance of outdoor play. In another, she shared that her home has only one television and a landline phone for her kids to use, all part of her mission to bring back the pre-digital childhood.<\/p>\n
Others, like TikTokers @motheringmoon and Erin Monroe (@erin.monroe_), have shared their approaches to a \u201c\u201890s summer,\u201d like outdoor family dinners, drinking pitchers of Kool-Aid, and playing in the sprinkler.<\/p>\n
Samantha Weber, who has an 11-year-old stepdaughter and a three-year-old daughter, is attempting to surround her kids with tactile games and activities to keep them off their screens. Her daughters are embracing it, putting on fashion shows in the living room. Her husband is an art teacher, \u201cso we always have coloring and paints out,\u201d she told The Independent. <\/em>\u201cWe\u2019re big board game people,\u201d she said, adding proudly that she just taught her stepdaughter how to play the card game Spit. \u201cWe also have a pool, so that\u2019s an escape,\u201d Weber said.<\/p>\nHer daughters both have devices, but Weber and her husband recently discussed how to manage screen time over the summer, whether that means creating a schedule or limiting it to evenings only. \u201cSometimes they need \u2018cool down\u2019 time from each other so we separate and say okay you can relax and watch or play a game,\u201d she said. \u201cThe games they play are also creative or learning-focused,\u201d she added, like certain modes on Minecraft, or math or spelling games. \u201cI\u2019m not saying we don\u2019t watch movies,\u201d Weber said, \u201cbut if we do, we make popcorn and do it together.\u201d <\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Gabrielle Rabinowitz is making use of water time this summer with her children (Gabrielle Rabinowitz)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nFamily movie nights can be a great way of using screens without some of the bigger worries that come with solo screen time. A recent study from the American Psychological Association found that excessive or unsupervised screen use can contribute to emotional issues in kids \u2014 who may then rely on their devices as a coping mechanism, creating a harmful cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently in a \u2018device detox\u2019 time, so that means they don\u2019t have them at all for a few days,\u201d performer and mom-of-three Clare Cannizzaro shared with The Independent<\/em>. Her trio of sons, ranging in age from 10 to 18, can check emails and messages for \u201ca short time, twice a day, or if we need them to carry a phone for means of calling us, but then it comes back to us the rest of the time.\u201d For Cannizzaro, an \u201cold-school summer\u201d means \u201clots of outside time, more family game nights and less individual screen time.\u201d<\/p>\nTo carry out her vision, Cannizzaro intends to have her kids engage more in tending the family\u2019s garden, caring for their ducks and chickens, building campfires, and catching fireflies. As a theatrical family, she\u2019s planning for the summer to be spent making films and putting on musical theater performances, with all the kids attending acting workshops.<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Too much solo screentime can contribute to emotional issues in children, studies have found (Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nHowever, Cannizzaro admits there\u2019s a balance to be struck in the 21st century. \u201cOur kiddos were born into this age of technology and we do feel that it\u2019s imperative that they have the skills and knowledge surrounding that. They likely will need technology in any career or life path they choose,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if there is a good dose of real life as well \u2014 playing in the dirt and riding bikes \u2014 we have always felt that was a good balance. But sometimes more real-life experiences are needed so they can relate to that instead of what\u2019s on YouTube or Instagram.\u201d<\/p>\n
For new mom Gabrielle Rabinowitz, those real-life experiences are part of her daily life as a daycare owner. In addition to her 13-month-old son, she constantly has her eye on four toddlers. So, water time with the hose and toys, nature observation, and playing with bubbles and chalk are all in a day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made it my mission to make our daycare days feel less like a typical \u2018school setting\u2019 and more nature-based and child-centered, which lends itself perfectly to an \u2018old-school summer\u2019 feel for all of us,\u201d she told The Independent<\/em>. \u201cThe hours go by so much faster when we spend them outside.\u201d<\/p>\nRabinowitz, too, keeps screen time to a minimum, even for the children she watches daily \u2014 and she\u2019s intent on keeping it that way. \u201cI have seen firsthand how offering an \u2018old-school summer\u2019 to young children can decrease those unwanted difficult behaviors, while simultaneously boosting their moods, allowing them to release energy in a positive manner, and connect with nature and loved ones in a very wholesome and grounding way.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no one way to have a \u201890s summer (and no singular name for it either: 80s summer, old school summer, kid rotting, call it what you please), but that\u2019s kind of the point. It\u2019s messy, meandering, and often made up on the spot. And in a world that rarely slows down, that kind of summer might just be exactly what kids \u2014 and their parents \u2014 need. Time to kick back like it\u2019s 1995.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n