When my girls were young, I religiously straightened my naturally curly hair. It was "just easier" to manage, I told myself.
But then I started noticing something – whenever they talked about their own hair dreams, they'd say they wanted it straight. My beautiful girls with their perfect curls wanted to change themselves because that's what they saw Mom doing.
That was my wake-up call.
I had to lean into my natural curls, even though the transition felt awkward and uncomfortable, because showing my girls that their natural beauty was worth embracing mattered more than my convenience.
Years later, I'm facing another mirror moment – this time with screens.
"You're always on your phone, so I can be on mine too!"
"Mom, you never pay attention because you're always looking at your screen!"
Yikes. These gut punches from my kids reflect an uncomfortable truth, one that a 2024 study in the Journal of Pediatric Research recently confirmed: one of the biggest predictors of kids' screen time is their parents' screen use.
It's something I've known, ignored, tried and failed at curbing, but keep getting up to try again.
Just like those curly hair days, sometimes we need to make changes that feel harder in the moment for the sake of what we're modeling for our kids.
This week, let's talk about how to reignite that goal of being more present – not just for our kids, but for ourselves too.
Because just like embracing my natural curls led to my girls loving their own, maybe embracing more screen-free moments will help our kids do the same.
