The idea I Didn’t Love (At First)
As I was making my packing list to take our family on a camping trip, my husband Peter made a suggestion.
“What if we leave the screens at home this year?”
I instantly pushed back.
Five kids.
Seven hours in the car.
Nothing to keep them occupied?
Hard pass.
But then he reminded me of last year.
Two of the tablets being broken and we didn’t have time to replace them, so we decided no tablets was better than the fighting that would most definitely ensue over whose turn it was.
And surprisingly…
It went really well.
Was it a Fluke?
Peter reminded me how the kids fought less, and we had some great moments and fun conversations on that trip.
Was it just a fluke, or was my husband’s intuition right – that maybe the tablets were somehow causing some of the problems?
We weren’t sure, but we decided to go ahead with the experiment and see if no tablets really was responsible for last year’s successful road trip.
The Verdict
With this year’s trip officially over, I can confidently say:
Yes. One hundred percent yes.
Once again:
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Better behavior
-
Less fighting
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More connection
Enough that we’ve made a family decision:
All Pinto family road trips are now officially screen-free.
It’s Not Just Us
And it turns out this isn’t just my family being some strange anomaly.
There’s a growing body of research that helps explain why taking the screens away actually made things better.
One peer-reviewed study looking at how digital platforms affect the brain found that:
“frequent engagement with social media platforms alters dopamine pathways, a critical component in reward processing, fostering dependency analogous to substance addiction.”
In other words, the brain starts responding to screens in a way that looks uncomfortably similar to drug addiction.
That helps explain why kids can seem completely fine one moment – and then absolutely lose it the second the screen is taken away.
It isn’t just attitude.
It’s chemistry.
Screens and Attention
Another large study published in Scientific Reports found that:
“increases in screen time in a given year predicted concurrent increases in ADHD symptoms,”
with the strongest effects seen in heavy users and impulsive behavior.
That constant stimulation, novelty, and reward loop doesn’t just disappear when the screen turns off.
It lingers.
Research from the National Institutes of Health echoes this.
In a paper titled Effects of Excessive Screen Time on Child Development, researchers found that:
“screen media use has been shown to negatively affect executive functioning… including working memory, inhibition, and the capacity to switch between tasks.”
Those are the exact skills kids need to regulate emotions, solve problems, and get along with siblings in a confined space like a car.
Brain Development
Even more striking, a JAMA Pediatrics MRI study of preschoolers found that children who spent more than an hour a day on screens showed:
“less development in the brain’s white matter, the region responsible for cognitive and linguistic skills.”
White matter plays a huge role in attention, language, and communication – the very things that seemed to improve for us once the screens were gone.
The Role of Boredom
Harvard Medical School sums it up in a way that really resonated with me.
They explain that:
“much of what happens on screen provides ‘impoverished’ stimulation of the developing brain compared to reality,”
and that children need a mix of online and offline experiences.
They go on to say something that many parents intuitively feel but rarely hear validated:
“Boredom is the space in which creativity and imagination happen.”
That boredom – the kind kids complain about at first – is often where the magic starts.
Even Tech Leaders Know This
And if all of that isn’t reason enough to at least question how much screen time kids are getting, I find it very telling that many of the people responsible for creating this technology are open about how tightly they limit their own children’s access to it.
According to a Business Insider article published January 4, 2026:
“Snap CEO Evan Spiegel limited his then seven-year-old’s screen time to about an hour and a half a week…
Google CEO Sundar Pichai limits TV time and phone access…
and Bill Gates didn’t give his kids phones until age 14.”
Reminds me of the old adage you hear in movies about never getting high on your own supply.
It’s Not Just Screens. It’s The Content.
Today’s kids programming is not what we grew up with.
Much of it is designed for quick dopamine hits, rapid scene changes, constant novelty, and short attention spans.
We’ve started sharing some of our favorite childhood shows and movies with our kids instead – slower-paced stories with richer dialogue and clearer moral frameworks.
We’ve noticed a difference.
What We’ve Observed
Their attention spans are better.
The more elevated, thoughtful dialogue seems to be expanding their vocabularies.
The traditional family dynamics and values in these older shows have subtly influenced how they see their role in our family.
They’re more willing to help.
More willing to take responsibility.
Final Thoughts
My family isn’t perfect.
My kids still fight and don’t always listen – just like any other kids.
But I’m convinced that our approach to limiting screens has greatly reduced those moments and had an immensely positive effect overall.
Our family’s approach may not be for everyone.
But the next time your kid is melting down, struggling to focus, or picking fights, it might be worth pausing before handing them the iPad – and asking whether the screen is actually helping… or quietly making things harder.
Keep Smiling,
Dr. Yenile Pinto
Functional & Biomimetic Dentist
P.S. Planning a family road trip of your own?
If you want a few practical tips for keeping everyone sane on long drives, you can find our road trip survival tips Click Here – Just skip the part about tablets.
