Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley Imposed These Tough Rules to Break Their Kids' ‘Unhealthy' Phone Habits: ‘They Were Little Addicts' (Exclusive)
The actress says they made the changes after seeing how attached they were to their phones: "They were little addicts"
Sticking with their plan was tough, but Heigl says it helped "break the addiction"Katherine Heigl says she knew she and husband, singer Josh Kelley, needed to make some changes at home when they realized that their kids were becoming "little addicts" with their phones.
"We started back in September because grades were slipping," says Heigl, 46, who shares three children with Kelley: daughters Naleigh, 16, and Adalaide, 13, and son Joshua, 8. "We always said no phones at bedtime, but there was sneaking devices and staying up really late and not getting good sleep and being unbearably cranky the next day. And it was just like, this isn't healthy."
The Grey's Anatomy alum says she and Kelley held out on giving their eldest a phone until she was 12.
"I was going to try to wait until 16, and I realized it's not possible. Not in the world we live in right now," she says. "She was just taking friends' phones and they were letting her use their phones. And then I have no idea what she's up to. And then if she wasn't on at all, couldn't participate in cafeteria conversation and didn't have any idea what other kids were talking about. So I was like, "Okay, let's find a balance."
The Firefly Lane actress says a friend helped her put strict restrictions on Naleigh's phone, "and it made me feel a little bit safer." But, she admits it was a slippery slope with her other kids: "When Adalaide was like nine or 10 and I was like, 'Fine, I'll get you a phone.' And Joshua has had a phone since he was like three," she says. "it's ridiculous."
It got to the point where "they were little addicts" with the devices, she says.
So several months ago, she and Kelley got tough. "They don't get their devices at all on Tuesday, Thursdays or Sundays. Saturday they get it after lunch. And they would only get them Monday, Wednesday and Friday after school, after homework, until bedtime — we start that process at 8 p.m. And they cannot take them to their rooms ever at night. They have to put their phones in our bedroom to charge."
The new rules weren't immediately welcome.
"It was like withdrawal for the first couple of weeks," she says. "There was a lot of anger and boredom and frustration. We just had to get through it. Josh and I would just give each other a pep talk, like, 'It's going to get better.'"
And over time, "it did. And they started developing other interests. I felt so much relief," she says. "Kids have not yet learned how to self regulate and self discipline, so we have to teach them."
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