You didn't have a phone until you were at least 16.

You remember what boredom felt like — the real kind, the kind that eventually pushed you outside, or into a book, or into a conversation you didn't plan. Your teenager has never been bored. Not really. There's always another video, another scroll, another notification. The gap between stimulus and stimulus is milliseconds. Nothing grows in that soil.

You remember what it felt like to get lost — physically lost, on your bike, in a neighbourhood, and having to figure it out. Your teenager has never been lost. GPS solved that. But it also solved away the quiet confidence of finding your own way home.

You remember friends who knew your landline number, who knocked on your door unannounced, who saw you cry and didn't look away. Your teenager has 5,000 connections and may not have three people who'd show up at 2am.

We gave them the screens. It was us — not them. We handed them the device, downloaded the apps, said "be careful" and hoped for the best. And now we're watching, anxious, as an algorithm raises our children alongside us. This isn't a parenting failure. It's a change no generation has ever faced before, and none of us were ready.

But here's what we can still give them: the skills, the stillness, the real friendships, the tested convictions that hold when life gets real. The guide below is one small, practical way to start.