Mum bans son’s phone ... and his behaviour transforms
IT WILL be a familiar tale to most parents – a teenager who just won’t get off his smartphone.
But when Karly Tophill imposed a dramatic year-long ban to separate her teenage son from his iPhone, she was shocked by the change in his behaviour.
Within six weeks, 13-year-old Dylan seemed happier, more talkative and energetic, spent more time on his homework and even volunteered to help her with household chores, she said.
Now Miss Tophill, 41, is encouraging other parents to introduce one ‘phone free’ day a week for their families to see if they spot similar benefits. The mother-of-two said it would be a struggle to get him off his phone to prepare for school in the mornings, and she worried he was rushing through his homework so he could use social media again.
‘Dylan was using his phone too much,’ she said. ‘He’d be coming home from school and using it to play games for about two hours in the evening, and in the morning. Deep down, I didn’t think he liked being contacted constantly. He felt pressured to reply to friends.’
Finally, in October, she confiscated his iPhone 4 and imposed a year-long ban, which she admitted was unpopular at first. But six weeks later she noticed he was playing more with his brother Marley, ten, and spending more time outside and on his homework.
Miss Tophill, who lives with her two sons and their father, Sam Kissling, 41, near Penzance in Cornwall, said the teenager had even told his father he thought he was better off without the phone.
‘Dylan has always been a happy child but I would say he is more engaged and energetic, more up for doing things,’ she said. ‘He takes much more time with homework now because he isn’t in a hurry to get it over with so he can check his Instagram.
‘He says the kids are on their phones a lot at school. It’s making a big difference with him not having it in the classroom.
‘When he gets bored he will even ask if I need help with housework and he will Hoover our entire home.’
Miss Tophill, a yoga teacher, said the experiment had worked so well that she had now relented over the year-long ban and reduced it to three months. Marley, who does not have a smartphone, had volunteered to stop using all electronic gadgets for one day a week including watching television, she said.
Dylan, a keen surfer and rugby player, said: ‘I was upset at the start but it’s not actually that bad. It gives me more time to do other things. In the mornings I was taking ages to get ready for school.’
But he added: ‘I would like to have a phone to watch YouTube, and Instagram.’
‘Takes more time with homework’