Raising Nature-Loving Kids in a Screen-Heavy World | With Nidhi Bennur, Youth Cosmo

Raising Nature-Loving Kids in a Screen-Heavy World | With Nidhi Bennur, Youth Cosmo

What would happen if you sat your child down for 15 minutes with no screen, no instructions, and no stimulation? According to Nidhi Bennur, co-founder and director of outreach of the Youth Cosmo (TYCO) [https://www.theyouthcosmo.org/] in Pune, most children today wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. Not because they’re lazy or broken — but because an entire generation has grown up never having to find ways to spend time. That’s the quiet crisis she and her two co-founders Hrishikesh and Rima Bichu set out to solve when she co-founded TYCO in 2022, right in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic that had kept children indoors, glued to screens, and further disconnected from the natural world. The Mission: Fall in Love with Nature TYCO isn’t trying to turn every child into a wildlife biologist. The goal is far more human — and far more urgent. It’s about making sure the next generation grows up with nature, not afraid of it or alienated from it. Nidhi calls the gap “nature deficit disorder,” and it’s widening every year as nuclear families, packed schedules, and digital devices fill every waking moment. What does TYCO actually do? It’s a beautifully layered ecosystem: * Earth Katta [https://www.theyouthcosmo.org/earthkatta] https://www.theyouthcosmo.org/earthkatta— Monthly outdoor gatherings where children, parents, and educators come together around a nature theme: games, conversations, quizzes, and activities, all outside. * Immersive Periodicals [https://www.theyouthcosmo.org/subscription] https://www.theyouthcosmo.org/subscription— Published every two months, these aren’t school textbooks. They’re visually rich, tactile publications designed to make a child want to pick them up. * Ancestral Games [https://www.theyouthcosmo.org/category/traditional-board-games] — The newest addition. Inspired by the games our grandparents played — games that were inherently connected to the natural world. Printed on cloth, zero plastic, zero waste. The Screen Time Answer Nobody’s Talking About What struck me most in my conversation with Nidhi was how simple — and yet how countercultural — her screen-time solution is. It’s not about banning devices or guilt-tripping parents. It’s about replacing the need for screens with something more compelling. On TYCO’s five-day outdoor excursions, gadgets are completely forbidden. And here’s the thing: nobody complains. Not a single child asks for their iPad. Because when you’re listening for different bird calls in a forest, touching leaves with different textures, identifying types of plastic for waste segregation — the screen simply becomes irrelevant. “When you find ways for children to indulge in nature,” Nidhi says, “screens automatically take a back seat.” There’s a nine-year-old in their community who now sorts waste at home — not because he was lectured to, but because it became a habit formed joyfully, outdoors, in community. A Message for Parents We overstructure childhood. Then wonder why kids can't handle unstructured time, without any stimulation. Wake up. Get ready. School. Snack. Coding class. Football. Robotics. Dinner. Sleep. Repeat. The irony? We build all this structure to develop our children. But in doing so, we've removed the one thing that actually builds resilience, creativity, and self-regulation: free, unstructured time. Nidhi’s closing thought stayed with me: every child has a naturalist intelligence. Not just logical, linguistic, or spatial — but naturalist. And we’re systematically under-developing it in favour of careers that make money. She also offers a practical playbook — including home hacks for families without easy access to natural spaces. Worth a listen for any parent, educator, or anyone building the next generation’s learning environments. The fix doesn’t require a forest. It starts at home, with parents who are willing to fall in love with nature themselves first. That’s the invitation this episode extends to all of us. The Parenting Reboot with Deepa is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Parenting Reboot with Deepa at deepavd.substack.com/subscribe [https://deepavd.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Why the Tech Industry Isn't Solving Real Family Needs — Yet | With Founder & Mom Avni Patel-Thompson

Ever wondered what technology and AI would look like if it were built by a mom? One designed not around engagement metrics, algorithms or ad revenue — but around the actual complications and nuances of family life. The 11pm mental checklist. The 14 school apps. The invisible labour that never makes it onto a CV, but runs the entire household. Avni Patel Thompson [https://www.avnipatelthompson.com/], a mom and 3x founder, has spent a decade trying to build that version. And what she’s learned along the way should change how all of us think about technology, parenting, and what we actually need from both. The Village Isn’t Gone. The Mechanism Is. Avni’s work starts with a single insight: modern parents aren’t missing the will to build and participate in community. They’re missing the infrastructure. “The village in the traditional sense is where you grew up and the people you’d known all your life. I was certain those people still exist in our communities. What we’re lacking is the mechanism to know them and trust them — over a shorter period of time.”- Avni That gap — between the people who exist and the trust that connects them — is what she tried to solve first with Poppy, a vetted caregiver marketplace backed by Y Combinator, and then with Milo, an AI family co-pilot backed by OpenAI. Both were different expressions of the same question: how do we give people the first-principles version of the village? The Real Problem With Family Tech Here’s something the industry doesn’t say out loud: most of the tools families use every day were never built for them. “We haven’t looked at homes as their own domain. We use products built for work — to achieve productivity — and plug them into homes where the end objective is completely different. Families don’t live to be productive.” The result? A market full of edtech sold to school boards instead of designed for kids. Productivity apps that treat the family like a project to manage. Platforms that add to the noise instead of filtering it. 3 things the parenting-tech world still gets wrong: → It optimises for the wrong thing. Efficiency and time-on-app are not the same as family wellbeing. → It ignores who’s actually doing the work. The invisible load — the mental, emotional, logistical labour of running a family — has never been treated as expertise worth building on. → It doesn’t understand care. AI today is trained on public internet data that barely represents women, let alone mothers. The tacit knowledge of how care actually works has never been encoded. The Question Nobody Is Asking What would AI look like if it were trained on care? “What if we got 10,000 mothers globally and had them encode how they think — about dinner, the weekend schedule, a sick neighbour, a child’s hard week? It hasn’t been done before. But why couldn’t it?” That data doesn’t exist because care work has never been treated as expertise worth collecting. Not because it isn’t valuable — because it hasn’t been prioritised. Avni believes it’s trainable. She believes AI can be built to understand not just the task of care, but the second and third-order reasoning behind it. But only if founders are willing to ask harder questions about what they’re actually building — and for whom. What Are Parents For in the Age of AI? It’s the question Avni is sitting with. And her answer is quietly radical. “Presumably, in the not-so-distant future, AI can do the functional work of parents — tutor, coach, cook, coordinate. So humans can just human. My job is to bear witness. To be present. To be imperfect and just try.” Her advice for families navigating right now: → Be conservative about anything algorithmic and designed for more time-on-app. Strong limits — or not at all. → Let your kids experiment, build, and ask questions. They’re teaching you more than you’re teaching them. → Teach them physics, philosophy, and poetry. Three poles far enough apart that they learn to think — not just to optimise. Thanks for listening and reading! 📩 Subscribe to this Substack for a new research-backed conversation every other week — no panic, no perfection, just honest takes on raising kids in the age of technology. → Follow Avni’s Substack Beautiful Chaos [https://thisbeautifulchaos.substack.com/] and give her a shout! 💙 Share this with a parent, educator, or founder who’s asking the same questions. The more people in this conversation, the better. Get full access to The Parenting Reboot with Deepa at deepavd.substack.com/subscribe [https://deepavd.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Sexuality, Reproductive Health & Tech: How Do Parents, Kids Learn Today?

What happens when the internet becomes your child’s first teacher about sexuality? In this episode of Parenting Reboot, I sit down with Ramya Anand, co-lead at TARSHI, [https://www.tarshi.net/] an organization that has spent nearly three decades reshaping how India approaches sexuality education, gender and reproductive health. Her message is simple, but not easy: if parents don’t talk about sexuality, the internet will. And the internet doesn’t always get it right. From unrealistic body standards to misinformation around consent and relationships, young people today are forming their understanding of sexuality in fragmented, often unsafe ways. What they need instead is context, trust, and conversation. We talk about * Why “one big talk” doesn’t work—and what to do instead * How to introduce age-appropriate conversations without awkwardness * The role of consent, agency, and safety in both online and offline spaces * Practical resources for parents navigating these conversations “Sexuality is an intrinsic part of our lives,” Ramya reminds us. Which means silence doesn’t protect our children—preparation does. Digital Safety: Understanding Key Concepts As children engage with digital media, parents must educate them on critical concepts related to digital safety, consent, agency, and access. Access: Understanding what content is accessible to them and recognizing safe versus unsafe information. Consent: Teaching children about consent in both online and offline interactions is vital. Encourage discussions about boundaries, respect, and communication. Agency: Empowering children to ask questions and express their feelings about what they encounter online fosters autonomy. Resources for Parents To aid in these conversations, resources such as age-appropriate books and guides can be invaluable [https://www.tarshi.net/resources/]. For instance, TARSHI has developed a series of colored books that cater to different age groups, helping parents navigate discussions with ease. The Yellow Book: Designed for parents, it offers tools and tips for discussing sexuality with children. The Red (10-14 years) and Blue Books (age 14+): Tailored for older kids and teens, these resources delve deeper into complex topics surrounding sexuality and relationships, providing a framework for parents to support their adolescent children. This episode is not about having all the answers. The digital world is evolving, and so must our approach to discussing sexuality. This isn’t just about biology; it’s about understanding our bodies, relationships, and choices in a nuanced way. It’s about becoming a parent your child can come to with questions. New episodes out, every other Wednesday. Subscribe and share the Parenting Reboot podcast with your loved ones! Get full access to The Parenting Reboot with Deepa at deepavd.substack.com/subscribe [https://deepavd.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Raising Calm Kids in Uncertain Times: A Dubai-Mom's Guide to Mindfulness

What if the antidote to your child’s screen meltdown wasn’t another app — but a body-first moment of connection you could share together? That’s the beating heart of Hoopla Fun UAE [https://hooplafun.com/], the gamified family wellness app founded by Jacqueline Perrottet — a mum of two who struggled with anxiety herself and set out to build something she genuinely needed at home. The result is an app that doesn’t chase engagement through addictive design. It quietly hands it back. In this conversation, Jacqueline walks us through the philosophy behind Hoopla’s Feel it, Move it, Connect approach — and why calming the body first is the fastest path to a calmer mind. “It’s a lot easier to control and calm your body than it is to calm your mind.” -Jacqueline What makes Hoopla different: * It’s designed for families to use together — not a device you hand a child and walk away from * Sensory, movement-based activities replace passive screen time * The app is deliberately free of streaks, reward loops, and notification hooks * It meets parents in the moment — because as Jacqueline says, “in the moment, you need something simple” For families in the UAE navigating regional tensions and uncertainty, Hoopla is offering something quietly radical: not a fix, but a focus. The app’s free interactive tools also include parent guides with specific language for talking to children about war, displacement, and change. 👉 Download their free Parent Guide here: hooplafun.com/this-might-help [https://hooplafun.com/this-might-help] Key Takeaways * Body-first emotional regulation is more accessible and easy to understand for young children * Co-play and family connection are built into the app’s core design * Digital wellness isn’t about less screen time — it’s about more presence * Practical, in-the-moment tools matter more to parents than theory “So many parents come to us and say - we’ve read all the books, done all the courses, but don’t know what to do in that very moment. In the moment, you need something really simple.” -Jacqueline Incorporating mindfulness into family life is not only beneficial but necessary in our digital age. By utilizing tools like Hoopla, families can reconnect, communicate better, and cultivate a nurturing environment. Check out Hoopla [https://hooplafun.com/] on iOS and give their meditation a try. Thanks for reading The Parenting Reboot with Deepa! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Get full access to The Parenting Reboot with Deepa at deepavd.substack.com/subscribe [https://deepavd.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Going Analog in a Digital World: How One Mom and Educator Is Reclaiming Childhood — One Small Moment at a Time

Motherhood can be a beautiful yet overwhelming journey — especially in today’s hyper-connected world. Most of us are quietly grappling with the same tension: we love technology, we depend on it, and we’re also watching it slowly reshape our children’s childhoods in ways we didn’t sign up for. On the latest episode of the Parenting Reboot, I sit down with Danielle Mussafi [https://ordinaryanimals.substack.com/about] — a Brooklyn-based early childhood educator, Substack writer, and creator of Ordinary Animals — to talk about what it means to parent and teach with intention in an age of infinite distraction. Danielle’s husband is a high school teacher. Between the two of them, they see every stage of what technology is doing to young people — in classrooms, in playgrounds, and at home. And their shared conclusion? It’s not working. It’s not worth it. Why “Ordinary Animals”? Danielle’s philosophy centers on one quietly radical idea: we are human animals, and that is enough. In a world that constantly nudges us to optimize, perform, and produce — Danielle argues for the opposite. She invites us to celebrate our ordinariness. To find meaning not in highlight reels, but in the mundane, the unplanned, the unphotographed. Motherhood, she says, has been one of the most grounding forces of her life — not because it made her extraordinary, but because it made her real. (And yes — we talk about matrescence, the profound psychological transformation of becoming a mother. Fun fact: it still hasn’t officially made it into the dictionary.) Thanks for reading The Parenting Reboot with Deepa! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The Disappearance of Free Play As an early childhood educator, Danielle has watched a slow erosion happen in real time. Safe, unstructured outdoor spaces for kids are disappearing. The village has thinned out. Third spaces — the parks, open spaces, the after-school corner — are vanishing. And when kids can’t negotiate, argue, invent rules, and manage boredom together without adult supervision, something important goes missing. “Sometimes coming up with the rules of the game takes hours. And then they only play for a little bit — because the rules, the negotiating, is the play.”- Danielle TV and phones, she says, have become default co-parents — not because parents are failing, but because the social net we once relied on has frayed. We don’t live in villages anymore. Extended families are spread thin. And safe places for children to simply be children are harder to find. The Push Back Against EdTech Danielle and her husband aren’t alone in their skepticism — and the conversation is finally starting to shift. Teachers and parents are seeing, firsthand, that technology in classrooms isn’t delivering on its promises. EdTech was sold as a revolution. Many are now questioning the return. She’s not anti-tech. She’s pro-intentionality. “It’s not screens, screens, screens,” she says. “If you can separate it out and just say — I’m going to wait as long as I possibly can to introduce personal devices to my children — that’s where you start.” So, What Does “Going Analog” Actually Mean? I asked Danielle to define it. Her answer surprised me with its simplicity: “It’s really just about reclaiming small moments of your attention and your intention inside whatever life you’re actually living.” Not a rejection of technology. Not a privilege reserved for those who can opt out. Just a conscious redirect — toward breath, toward movement, toward presence. The things she suggests are mostly free: take a walk, write a gratitude list, do 10 jumping jacks, spend 15 minutes colouring. These aren’t lifestyle upgrades. They’re attention practices. And if going analog feels like a privilege? Danielle is direct: “Then we may have lost the plot.” The Practical Bit: Audio as a Bridge If you’re trying to transition your kids away from screens, Danielle offers one beautifully simple tip: try audio first. TV delivers the strongest dopamine hit of any screen — vivid colors, fast pace, a completely passive experience. Switching a child straight from that to building blocks is a recipe for a meltdown (their nervous system is adjusting, not being difficult). Key Takeaways: * Matrescence is real — becoming a mother transforms your identity, and that transformation deserves to be named and honored. * Free, unstructured play is disappearing — and with it, the social and emotional skills children develop when left to negotiate the world themselves. * Third spaces matter — communities, institutions, and governments have a role to play in creating safe, unsupervised spaces for kids to be kids. * EdTech isn’t delivering — teachers and parents are pushing back, and the conversation is finally gaining mainstream traction. * Going analog isn’t all-or-nothing — it’s about reclaiming small moments of attention, one intentional choice at a time. * Audio is your bridge — when transitioning kids from screen time, use audio as a middle step before jumping to active play. * Find your people — seek out parents and educators in your community who share your values around low-tech childhood. For more insights on parenting and navigating the digital landscape, check out Danielle’s work at Ordinary Animals [https://ordinaryanimals.substack.com/]. Show her some love! Get full access to The Parenting Reboot with Deepa at deepavd.substack.com/subscribe [https://deepavd.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]