Wait Until 8th - Monroe

05/09/2026

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

📊 Over 50% of Americans plan to give a book as a gift, and 73% say books feel more meaningful than other presents. New York Post

At Defend Young Minds, we believe the right book can do even more.

📘 'Good Pictures Bad Pictures' and 'Good Pictures Bad Pictures Jr.' aren’t just stories, they’re tools that:
✔️ Help kids understand what to do when they see something confusing or inappropriate
✔️ Build a child’s internal filter before exposure to po*******hy happens
✔️ Give parents an age-appropriate way to start important conversations about online safety

Unlike toys or screens, these books don’t lose their value after the holidays.
They grow with your child and equip them with lifelong skills for navigating a digital world.

**See link in comments for books to use as a gift for yourself, your grandkids, or your parent friends!

12/09/2025

At Christmas, we all want to give our kids something they’ll be delighted to unwrap — and the gadgets that beep, flash or plug in often top the list. But knowing which tech genuinely enriches children’s lives (and which quietly pulls them into an addictive online world) can be tricky. So we tu...

12/09/2025

No TikTok, no iPhones and retro landlines. These parents are raising kids like it’s 1995.

Special thanks to USA Today for sharing the pledge!

Walk into some homes in Oceanport, New Jersey, and you might think you’ve time traveled.

Landlines are tethered to playroom walls, and radios are playing music. The reading on-tap is Beverly Cleary's "Beezus and Ramona," and Friday nights are marked with TGIF TV — think "Full House" and "Family Matters" — with parents and kids sharing living room couches, watching together after dinner.

Blink, and you’ll think you’ve stepped into 1995.

But it’s about more than just nostalgia. On playgrounds in New Jersey, in living rooms in Seattle, and in text chains between moms across the country, a shift is unfolding. Some millennials parents want to raise their kids with the kind of carefree, phone-free, independent play they grew up with. And they’re doing it.

“We are in a sweet spot where we know life before, we know life after,” says millennial mom Holly Moscatiello. She’s the founder of The Balance Project, a non-profit that aims to help kids balance independence and mindful technology usage. “We had the ability to watch what happens if you go too far. Now we have the opportunity to take the step back, and we're taking it.”

It’s a shift psychologist Jonathan Haidt has been urging for years. He outlined it extensively in his book “The Anxious Generation,” where he advocates for curtailing smartphone use before 14.

These parents are listening.

In the suburbs of New Jersey, a cacophony of noises coming from a playground jungle gym leaves little doubt.

There are reasons to be hopeful, though. Policy changes are making an impact: as of November, 36 states and Washington D.C. had instituted policies on K-12 cellphone usage in schools. And more than 130,000 parents nationwide have signed the Wait Until 8th pledge, which commits to delaying giving kids smartphones until at least eight grade.

Real the full article @ USA Today.

Take the pledge 👇
✨ Wait until at least the end of 8th grade for a smartphone.
✨ Delay social media until 16+.

Small choice. Big impact. Childhood is worth protecting. 💛

12/09/2025

10/22/2025

You don’t have to give in to the pressure.
A basic phone keeps you connected with your child without the constant pull of social media. Choosing a basic phone isn’t holding your child back — it’s giving them a head start on confidence, focus, and real-world connection. Let’s protect childhood a little longer. 💛

10/15/2025

Together, we can shift the culture — let’s make it uncool to have a smartphone before high school. 💪

10/05/2025