The question arrives at every parents' gathering now, usually somewhere between the main course and dessert: what do you do about screens? It is asked with a particular anxiety that would have baffled our grandparents.

The answer, I have found over twelve years of parenting, is not a rigid policy but a gentle philosophy: children who are given rich alternatives to screens will largely choose those alternatives. The trick is making the analog world more interesting than the digital one — which, for children, it naturally is.

The Boredom Threshold

Every parent knows the complaint. "I'm bored." The instinct to solve it — to hand over a device, to suggest an activity — is strong. Resist it. Boredom is not a failing; it is a threshold. On the other side of it lies invention, imagination, and the kind of self-directed play that builds resilient minds.

Stocking the Analog Arsenal

Keep art supplies accessible. Maintain a shelf of puzzle books and comics. Leave building materials where they can be found. A magnifying glass, a set of binoculars, a bird identification book by the kitchen window. These are not alternatives to screens — they are the primary furniture of childhood, as they always were.