Parenting has never been easy, but all of this technology meant to make it a little less hectic may have the opposite effect.

According to a survey by powerhouse fact tank Pew Research, children’s time online, using social media and playing video games has gone way up since the pandemic. Also on the rise? Our concerns about it all. 

More than two-thirds of parents raising young ones say screen time and tech use are among their biggest worries. Most moms and dads say technology has made parenting harder – not easier – in the past 20 years.

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Calgon, take me away…

In the 1980s, when a mom was at her breaking point, all she had to do was call out, "Calgon, take me away!" and the next thing you knew, she was luxuriating in a bubble bath. At least that's how it worked in the commercials. Unfortunately, we all know our kids will keep calling out to us and knocking on the door until we answer.

What’s a frazzled modern parent to do when she needs a few moments of peace but doesn’t want to stick her child in front of a screen? Is there a happy place between an old cardboard box and going full zombie mode to an endless loop of "Encanto?"

These are the questions I set out to answer on a long weekend with my BFF and her four children, who range in age from 5 to almost 12.

The older two would be happy to spend their every waking moment playing video games. The younger two are entirely out of their minds until someone sticks a screen in front of their faces – where they would be content to spend … maybe forever – plugged in and zoned out.

These are well-behaved, normally active children with wonderfully engaged parents who spend a ton of time and energy in all kinds of healthy, indoor and outdoor brain-game play. It’s just … kids are hard, and screens seem to have that magnetic tractor-beam pull that sucks them in and won’t let go. Every parent needs a few minutes of uninterrupted time, whether to finish a work call, prep dinner, take a shower or just breathe.