My husband and I have four kids – elementary and middle school age – who love screens. Not a book worm in the crowd. Like many families, they watched their fair share of Baby Einstein and The Wiggles in the baby and toddler years…sometimes over and over again – so I could make dinner, or nurse the baby, or heaven forbid sit down with the neighbor to have a glass of wine. These days, our kids love to play app-based games, watch videos, and play on their Xbox. 

Overwhelmed and unsure of what to do, a group of parents in Kansas City recently began a conversation:  What would it look like to pause for minute, and rethink the way we manage the gift of technology?  And as we began to gather around coffee tables, at the playground, and in school libraries, we uncovered a common theme:  “This is hard; it’s like we are in a new frontier and there is no roadmap.  We need someone to help us navigate this terrain.”  In May, this led us to launch START: Stand Together And Rethink Technology.