Fox Business’ Lauren Simonetti reports that a group of parents aims to replace children’s screen time with real-world communication.
In a time dominated by screens, many parents are looking for ways to give their children something that they feel is quietly disappearing: freedom, self-confidence and less time filled with devices.
Growing very fast, the parenting movement is taking hold in communities across the country, awakening childhood around freedom and real-world experiences rather than constant digital updates.
The balance project, a nonprofit, started last year in small silver, and New Jersey, and has already spread to more than 100 communities. Its message is straightforward: Technology is not the enemy, but childhood should not surround it.
“I think our message of moderation, and recognizing that technology plays an important role in our children’s lives, is an important part of why people are willing to come in,” founder Moscatiello told Fox Business.
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The founder of the remaining project, Holly Moscatiello and her daughters. (The Plassion Project / Fox News)
Moscatiello created the rest of the project after realizing that too much screen time was reactivating his children and after studying the “anxious generation.” This data supports their concerns: 40% of toddlers now own their own tablet, and more than half of children under the age of 8 have traditional devices.
Instead of pushing strict rules, the remaining project focuses on replacing the screen with a rich, offline experience and promoting Smartt’s “Goals” for High Schools before 16, schools that have no fruit in the real world. The goal is simple: change the default from “device” to “standalone.”
Chapters include hands-on parent education – alternatives such as outdoor sports gatherings, phone-free play sessions that teach breathing and bike posture, bike clubs, Old-School clubs and vintage bike rides.
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That message resonated with Jason Wyatt and his wife, who first became concerned when their daughter entered the fifth grade – the age when most of the children in their community got their smartphones.
“We felt like we weren’t ready yet,” Watt told FOX Business. “When we talked to the rest of the project, we found out that we’re not alone … It gives you a playbook, some information, some things you can do.”
Her daughters have embraced other ways: riding bikes around town, hitting up friends’ houses, and “exploring” in ways parents say. One spring event – the frog hunt – makes a big impression.
“It’s getting kids out there in this organic way,” Wyatt said, that the fun and problem-solving created in the mud is “a real-world experience that they’ll need in school and in business one day.”
Interest is spreading. Friends from Wlay’s college and legal circles watched her family’s experience online and considered launching chapters in their cities.
One of the most popular partners is the popular project of sticks and shoots, an outdoor playgroup where “kids get dirty on purpose.” Sessions emphasize unplanned natural play – climbing logs, digging trenches, scrambling through “mud kitchens” and finding solutions without adults entering.
The balance project gives children activities that help them disconnect from their smartphones. (The Plassion Project / Fox News)
FOX Business visited one session of the fall where the children mold the pumpkin into a “pumpkin pie,” stir up “crandy sauce,” collected sticks with the cranend of the dead and create a “full” feast “directly from dirt. The children are left covered in mud and completely indifferent to the screens.
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Parents build community, too. They return to quiet “guardian raiders” who “watch their children explore and connect with each other through book clubs and free social outings – giving adults their chance to take their children out.
Parents are limited to parents in a book club. (The Plassion Project / Fox News)
For intermediate partners, group partners and programs that bring students into the gym to work on breathing, posture and movement.
In one piece on the silver lining, Datar Grader Brook Missig told FOX Business that she actually feels happier without her phone.
“I look forward to every day,” he said. “When I hide for a long time, I have to keep my back straight. That’s something I’ve been working on a lot lately.”
Critics say that Unclugging is simply a no-brainer as technology re-enters everyday life. But parents in the movement say the goal isn’t to end the digital world — it’s to teach kids how to thrive beyond themselves.
And schools are starting to take notice.
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“Working every day in our schools, we see how technology affects the environment,” Holmdel Township Superintendent CasCott told FOX Business. “It’s a big part of the conversation that’s happening in public education.”
CasCone said the project’s ongoing efforts helped “reinforce our determination to expand efforts that were already underway,” and reinforced the district’s belief that “a concerted effort with the community was essential” to effective policy. Holmdel schools already reject devices for K-8 students, and the high school is more flexible. Now, the district is actively reworking where to draw the line.
As the movement spreads, many parents say they are relieved to learn that they are not just something – they are part of a national shift. And for families across the country, getting back on bikes, mud and face-to-face is not a step backwards. A reset they didn’t know they needed.
“Really if you just go back to basics and give kids a chance to be kids,” Moscatiello said.
