Featured Post from Offline.now

School’s Out, Screens Are In: Why Your Kids Copy Your Phone Habits on Winter Break

Offline.now experts say the most powerful screen-time rule over the holidays isn’t for kids, it’s for the adults they’re watching.

Dec 9, 2025

2 min

Craig Selinger

When the bell rings for winter break, most parents worry their kids will “disappear into their phones.” What often goes unmentioned? The adults usually disappear into theirs first.


New behavioral data from Offline.now, the digital wellness platform founded by author Eli Singer, shows we now spend about 10 of our 16 waking hours on screens, roughly 63% of our day. Kids off school are simply mirroring the digital norms they see at home.


Executive Function Coach and child development specialist Craig Selinger says winter break is less a test of kids’ willpower and more a test of family norms:


“If you want behavior change in kids, start with the parent model. A 12-year-old will not put their phone away at dinner if their parents won’t.”


Selinger points to what he calls the “mobility problem”: what used to be a TV in the living room is now a device in your child’s pocket.


“Mobility makes tech sticky - there’s no natural ‘show’s over’ when Minecraft and TikTok never end.”


Offline.now’s experts note that high, especially late screen use is tied to disrupted sleep and next-day behavior in children and teens, exactly when parents say, “They’re monsters over break.”


Selinger’s work with families suggests the answer isn’t banning devices outright, but changing what kids see adults do with theirs. When parents put phones in a basket at meals, leave devices out of bedrooms, and actually join “old school” activities: cooking, board games, hands-on hobbies, kids’ attention and confidence start to rebound:


“Micro-independence beats micromanagement. If you engineer small wins off-screen - a 20-minute task kids can complete without their phone - you rebuild their real-world confidence one brick at a time.”


Key message for journalists:

Over winter break, the real story isn’t just “kids are on their phones all day.” It’s that adult behavior quietly sets the ceiling on what’s realistic for children. The most effective “screen-time rule” is the one parents are willing to follow themselves.


Featured Expert

Craig Selinger, M.S., CCC-SLP - Executive Function Coach and child development specialist (Brooklyn Letters), focused on how kids actually learn and how digital dependency affects attention, writing, family systems, and school success.


Expert interview availability can be arranged through Offline.now’s media team.


Connect with:
Craig Selinger

Craig Selinger

Executive Function Coach, Speech-Language Pathologist, and Educational Specialist

NYC EF coach & SLP helping students & families with ADHD, autism & LD build focus, organization & communication skills.

Neuro-Affirmative ApproachesNeurodiverse LearnersExecutive FunctionSpeech-Langage PathologyEducation

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