For parents of children of any age, from toddlers to teenagers
Screens are part of childhood now. The question is how to find the balance.
The Screen Balance Program is an online course from two clinical child psychologists. You assess your child, write a screen plan that fits your family, and practice the hard parts: what to say when screen time ends, which parental controls to use, gaming, and a first phone and social media.
One payment of $99, no subscription. 14-day money-back guarantee.
What parents ask us about most
Does any of this sound familiar?
“Every time I say screen time is over, it turns into a fight.”
You practice what to say in the moment, how to acknowledge how your child feels without giving in, and how a calm handover is set up before it starts.
“I honestly don’t know how much is too much for my child.”
You go through what the research actually says, and why the same two hours means something different for two different children.
“Everyone in her class has a phone. Is she ready?”
You work through a readiness check, then set up a first phone in a simulator and handle a year of the situations that follow.
“He can’t stop gaming, and he gets angry when I ask him to.”
You learn why games are built to be hard to stop, and what to expect in the first two weeks of a new limit, when protest usually gets louder before it settles.
“The tablet goes to bed with them and they’re tired every morning.”
You set up where devices spend the night, and how to introduce that change without it becoming a nightly argument.
“There are so many parental control apps. Which one do I use?”
You tell it which features you want to manage and which devices you have, and it recommends the software that fits.
The free check takes about five minutes. Full results on the page, no email needed to see them.
By the end
What you learn to do
- Read the research and apply it to your own childBecome critically informed about what the evidence does and does not show, identify your own child's main screen risks through a structured assessment, and build a plan for managing those risks and preventing others.
- Make a change that holdsChanges to screen routines often hold for a week or two and then loosen. Learn how to help a change stick, what that rocky period usually looks like, and how to run a monthly review of how your plan is working.
- Handle the moment screen time endsLearn what to say when you call time and practice it across the situations parents run into most, including why protest often gets louder for a while before it settles.
- Answer the next request for a device or an accountWork out your position on phones, social media and gaming before your child asks, and use a decision tree to work through each new request as it arrives.
- Respond if something happens onlineLearn what to do if your child sees pornography, is contacted by someone they do not know, or is asked for photos, and how to talk with them about it afterwards.
- Set up the devices and the nightDecide which controls you want to manage yourself, get a recommendation for the software that fits your devices, and set up where screens spend the night and how that change is introduced.
One payment of $99, no subscription. 14-day money-back guarantee. This is an educational program, not therapy. You know your child best and you decide what changes.
The Screen Balance Program is an online course for parents of children and teenagers, created by Dr. Danny O'Rourke and Dr. Jennifer Tininenko, two clinical psychologists who are also parents. It starts with a thirty item assessment of your child, then walks you through choosing the right changes, writing a family screen plan, handling the pushback, comparing parental control software, and preparing for the first phone and social media. Five modules, twenty-nine lessons, one payment of $99, with a 14 day money back guarantee.
