If you are not yet subscribed to my Substackthis is where I get a little more personal: I write from the heart about self-care, motherhood, wellness, and everything in between. My community loved this post, so I wanted to share an excerpt with you here.
None of us wake up planning spending more time on our phones than we would like. It just kind of…happens. A quick check turns into a 20-minute scroll, and suddenly it’s 2 p.m., and you don’t know where the morning went. We’ve all been there, so I want to say it up front: this isn’t another article designed to make you feel guilty about your screen time.
Here’s the problem: no matter how intentional I am with using my phone, I still have days where I work on it way more than I intended. This comes up all the time in conversations with my friends, and it most certainly comes up in any conversation about raising kids in 2026.
Just when I think I have it figured out, I can fall back into habits that take me away from the present, free, fulfilling life I actually want to live.
Case in point: A few weekends ago, Austin was hit by an ice storm and we found ourselves with four full days at home with nowhere to go. In my mind, I had this vision of a cozy, dreamy weekend: playing games, doing art projects with the kids, cleaning out closets (just me?), baking cookies, and family movie nights. And while a lot of that stuff happened, there was also a lot of refreshing my Slack notifications and scrolling through Instagram.
I could feel my nervous system getting louder – the kind of tense yet tired feeling that comes over you when you consume more than you consume.
It didn’t help that it coincided with an incredibly tumultuous time in the world. I’ve let myself read way too many comments from people fighting over politics, throwing insults, watching incredibly disturbing videos about what’s happening in Minnesota. Monday night, I could feel it in my body – distracted, anxious, lashing out at Adam and the kids about things that normally wouldn’t make me angry.
Unlock the full message here to learn more about boundaries that protect the parts of life that matter most to me. When I do this, I feel more aligned, less stressed, and like I have more hours in the day.
The position How I learn to use my phone, without letting it use me appeared first on Camille Styles.
