I Tried to Get My Teenagers Off Their Phones, Here’s the One Thing That Actually Worked 

Let’s be honest: phones are the number one battle in most homes nowadays, especially with teenagers, and none of us are getting it perfectly right, but then I noticed a little trend that’s going around now on socials, and I thought, there’s genuinely no better time to try putting the phone down for a bit. I’m not talking about confiscating it altogether, but creating curiosity. The first stop: Awesome Books. 

Kids, they’re curious. They want to explore, try new things, copy what they see. And guess what, you are their model as their parents. If they see you scrolling all day, that’s the behaviour they’ll mirror, whether we like it or not. The first shift had to come from us: let them catch you reading for fun, not just as something you nag them about. 

The second shift was letting go of control over what they read. Graphic novels, comics, fiction, whatever hooks them, it all counts. And also the one that most of us miss. Don’t just tell them reading is good for them; show them. What are the true benefits of reading and let them see you enjoying it, and let them choose their own way in. 

Then the obvious part we can’t forget: the cost of books nowadays. As a family of 4, we simply can’t be buying new books every few weeks; it adds up quickly. and yes, charity shops sometimes are a good catch, but finding something your teenager will actually pick up is a bit of a lottery. 

That’s exactly why I love Awesome Books. They believe in giving books a second life instead of letting them go to waste, which means you can pick up genuinely good, well-looked-after used books for a fraction of the price of new. Free UK delivery meant I could keep the pile topped up without delivery costs quietly cancelling out the savings, and every order comes with a 30-day guarantee so there’s no stress if something isn’t right. 

But honestly, none of that is really the point. The point is watching my teenagers reach for a book instead of a phone without being nagged into it, and realising that’s a habit I built by changing my own first, not by changing them. 

So here’s the question I keep coming back to, and maybe you should ask yourself too: when your kids picture you in the evening, what are they actually picturing? Because whatever that image is, it’s the one they’ll grow up copying, long after they’ve stopped listening to a word we say. 

This post is in collaboration with Awesome Books.