I have rambunctious boys. I love them to pieces, but they can be a handful sometimes. This summer, one of my little boys was upset about something. He raged and threw a tantrum while we were swimming at a neighbor’s pool. The next thing I knew, he grabbed my cell phone and threw it into the pool.

My immediate thought was, “Lucky it wasn’t a smartphone that had everything important on it. It was just a basic flip with no emotional or strong attachment.” He was then given a consequence for his unacceptable behavior, and I calmly followed through with it.

When things settled, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction that I was able to stay calm and not feel overly frustrated by his wild behavior. This was only possible because I had gotten rid of my smartphone a couple of years ago, and I was not attached to my flip phone. It was so liberating to me to be able to parent my child according to his actions and not according to my frustration.