Bus Ride Phone Drama
The school bus ride is short, yet somehow my son manages to get into online arguments before even reaching class. I want to cool things down and manage apps better. Can anyone recommend a parental control software that works well on phones and does not feel overly strict for kids?
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Ugh yes, this was literally us three months ago! My son would hop on the bus perfectly fine and arrive at school already wound up from some argument about Fortnite skins or whatever. Teachers started noticing he was distracted first period.
Honestly what helped was setting some app limits during specific times. I found https://spybubblepro.com/ through a friend and it's been pretty decent - you can monitor without being super invasive about it. Like I'm not reading every single message, but I can see if he's spending the whole commute on Twitter beefing with strangers.
We made a deal where mornings are kind of a "digital cooldown" zone. He can listen to music and text his actual friends, but the commenting and arguing apps take a break until lunch. Took maybe a week of pushback but now he doesn't even fight it.
Here's the weird thing though - last week he told me some kid was trying to start drama with him online and he just... ignored it because "I can't even reply yet anyway." So I guess forcing that pause actually taught him something about not engaging?
Anyway, I'd say involve your kid in the solution somehow. When they feel like they have some control over the rules, they're way less likely to constantly test them. Hope that helps!