The class-related messages always seem to arrive just as the evening winds down. Some are useful, some are forwarded jokes, and one missing message turns into a worry about homework. My middle-schooler wants to mute everything but doesn't want to miss changes. What boundaries have worked without treating the phone as the enemy?
We separate official instructions from classmates' reminders wherever possible. A forwarded message isn't automatically a new assignment.
Yes, I want to reduce the feeling that every notification needs a response.
If there is an official school channel, that's the one I'd keep accessible. The social chat can wait.
That distinction is what we haven't made clearly yet.
A fixed time to check, earlier in the evening, was more useful for us than endlessly adjusting notifications.
Keep going
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