The Off Switch is a simple card and app that helps you protect family time, calmer routines, and your own headspace, without losing the parts of your phone you need for safety, work, or life admin.
On this page, you will see how it works, example routines you can copy, and what parents and carers usually notice after a few weeks.
The Off Switch
× Parents & Carers
What you’re trying to do
If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place.
1. Be properly present during meals, playtime, and bedtime, not half in a screen.
2. Help children grow up with healthier screen habits than the world around them.
3. Keep on top of work, messages, and life admin without your phone swallowing the whole evening.
4. Have pockets of quiet in the day where the whole household can breathe.
5. Model the kind of digital behaviour you want your children and teens to copy.
Where it starts to go wrong
You are not doing this “wrong.” The environment is built to keep everyone’s attention. The Off Switch exists to tilt things back in your favour.
1. You pull out your phone “just to check something,” and suddenly you are in messages, news, or socials while a child is waiting for your attention.
2. Mealtimes are spent with one or more people scrolling, instead of talking.
3. You use your phone to escape parenting stress, which is very human, but it makes you feel more distant and guilty.
4. Children copy what they see. If the normal pattern is “grown-ups always have a phone in their hand,” it’s harder to argue that they should be different.
5. Screen time rules turn into constant negotiations, threats, and bargaining chips, which can chip away at trust on both sides.
How The Off Switch helps
Think better
The Off Switch creates clear, predictable screen rules for grown-ups and children (instead of a fog of “phones out all the time”), which most guidelines recommend. It reduces “technoference” (parent screen use that cuts into parent-child interaction), which research links to fewer responsive interactions and more child whining, frustration, and outbursts. Supporting healthier routines around meals, homework, and bedtime means better behaviour, sleep, and wellbeing for children later on.
Live easier
You choose which apps go Off during family time (socials, email, and work apps Off; calls, maps, and health apps On, for example). One tap on the card quiets your chosen apps until you tap again, with no hunting through settings in the middle of a meltdown. You can set simple modes like “Family meal," “Homework hour,” and “Bedtime wind-down,” then reuse them every day. The card sits where your routines already happen: on the dining table, by the sofa, near the children’s homework spot, or next to your bedside lamp. The core features are free, so you don’t need to buy a subscription before you see any benefit.
Feel calmer
Instead of feeling you “should be stronger,” you have a small ritual that backs up your good intentions. You feel less torn between work, messages, and your family in the same ten-minute window. Children feel more seen and heard when they get undivided attention at predictable points in the day. Fewer rows about phones emerge, replaced with “this is just what we do in our house.”
Routines that work well for parents and carers
Screen-free mealtimes
When: Any shared meals you choose, for example, breakfast on school days and most evening meals.
Apps off: Social media, email, work chat, news, games, non-essential messaging apps.
What stays on: Calls in case of emergencies, timer, music if you like quiet background sounds.
How it helps: Protects family meals as a space for conversation and connection, which research links to better eating habits and family functioning.
Homework and study time
When: Agreed homework window on school days.
Apps off: Social media, games, shopping, non-essential messaging apps, streaming.
What stays on: Calculator, learning platforms, school communication apps, browsers for research, timetable app, timer.
How it helps: Children see that you are also “off” your distraction apps, which models the same focus you are asking from them and reduces the “you are on your phone, why can’t I” argument.
Evening wind-down
When: From an agreed “tech curfew” time until everyone is asleep.
Apps off: Work email and chat, most social media, news apps, and anything that drags you into arguments or doomscrolling.
What stays on: Calls, messaging for close family, alarms, music or audiobooks, meditation or sleep sounds.
How it helps: Keeps stimulating content and work worries out of the last hour of the day, which supports better sleep for both adults and children.
Playtime or “fully present” time
When: Short pockets in the day, such as 15–30 minutes after nursery or school, or weekend mornings.
Apps off: Everything non-essential.
What stays on: Calls and safety apps.
How it helps: You get small, concentrated doses of proper connection, even if the rest of the day is hectic. Children are very sensitive to whether they have your eyes and your face, not just your presence in the room.
Common questions
Will this work if my children are the ones glued to screens?
The Off Switch is for your phone first. Children take screen-time rules more seriously when they see adults changing their own habits, not just making rules for everyone else. You can pair this with age-appropriate limits and screen-free zones, which many guidelines recommend, but you start by changing what you can control.
What if I need to be reachable for work or care responsibilities?
You can keep calls and specific apps On while everything else is Off. For example, you might leave one work contact route available and turn off email and chat. The point isn’t to make you unreachable. It’s to make “I am checking this for a reason” the norm.
Won’t this cause meltdowns if I suddenly put my phone away?
Sudden changes can be bumpy. You can soften this by:
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Explaining what you are doing and why, in child-friendly language.
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Pairing screen-free times with something positive, like a game, story, or shared snack.
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Being consistent rather than strict one day and relaxed the next.
Over time, predictable routines are easier for children to live with than endless negotiations.
Do we have to be screen-free all evening?
No. Phones and tablets are part of modern family life. The Off Switch is about protecting certain key moments, such as meals, homework, and the last hour before sleep, so those parts of the day work better for you and your children.
Is this only for parents of small children?
No. Teens and older children also notice when adults are less distracted, even if they pretend not to. The same routines can apply to shared meals, revision time, and “everyone home” evenings. For younger children, you might focus on play and bedtime. For teens, it may be shared spaces and late night boundaries.