These parents won’t give their kids iPhones — but they have clever work-arounds: ‘I can’t keep them in a bubble forever’
NY Post
Erin Bulcao’s teenage daughters aren’t glued to their phones like most New York City middle schoolers.
Unlike the rest of the smartphone generation, the 13-year-olds are not allowed to have social media — nor have unlimited access to their devices.
“The phone is there to be able to contact us,” Bulcao, 40, told The Post.
The devices are purely for necessity, not fun — she tracks her daughters’ locations to ensure they arrive at school safely. When they get home in the afternoon, the phones, which automatically lock at 7 p.m., are docked in the kitchen.
She noticed that when her twins, Natalia and Eliana, are off their phones for a few hours, “they’re just completely different people, and in a good way.”
“They don’t realize how much the phone and the texting, even if it’s just texting, is actually affecting them in a negative way,” Bulcao said. “And as a parent, that worries me.”
