"But everyone else has one."
September 2026
Of all the sentences parents repeat, this is the one we hear most. It comes in a tone somewhere between exasperation and defeat.
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If you have already said yes
September 2026
This piece is for the family whose 10 year old has had a smartphone for 2 years. The parent who went to the talk, read the research and went home with a knot in their stomach.
Read moreSafety without a smartphone
September 2026
The most reasonable objection we hear to waiting is not about apps or feeds. It is this: "She walks to school on her own now.
Read moreSleep, the first thing to go
August 2026
If a parent asks where to start, we say sleep. Not because it is the most dramatic thing a smartphone affects, but because it sits underneath everything else.
Read moreThe buzz that never comes
July 2026
A mother described it to us last year. Her son, 13, at the kitchen table with his maths homework.
Read moreThe gift with a screen
July 2026
If you are a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle or a godparent reading this, we want to start by saying thank you. The children of Skerries are surrounded by adults who love them, and that is the single most protective thing in any child's life.
Read moreWhat a smartphone teaches a child about themselves
August 2026
Every child is working on one question through adolescence: who am I? They answer it by watching how others respond to them.
Read moreWhat Greystones taught us, and what Skerries can do with it
September 2026
3 years ago a group of parents in Greystones sat down with the principals of the town's primary schools and agreed something that sounds almost too simple. They would wait.
Read moreWhy 12 is the hardest age to hand over a smartphone
September 2026
There is a moment most Irish families recognise. The last week of 6th class.
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