Drew Barrymore is a very protective parent, and for good reason. She didn’t have the best childhood. Sure, she was a star, but her home life was a complete mess and she never felt like her parents were there to protect her.
So she’s determined not to make the same mistakes with her daughters, 12-year-old Olive and 10-year-old Frankie.
The 49-year-old actress went on her Instagram account this week to share a lengthy post about how she gave into the pressure and gifted Olive a cellphone for her 11th birthday. There were strict rules in place though. She could only use it on the weekends and for a limited time with no social media.
But even with those limitations, Barrymore regretted her decision…
Within three months, I gathered the data of the texts and the behavior. I was shocked by the results… I printed out every single text onto paper. I handed her a stack of pages and said this is not a black void that these travel to. They’re permanent somewhere where we don’t see it, so we don’t believe in its retraceable and damning nature if we fail digitally to act with decency.
She ended up taking the phone away from Olive, but she made it clear to her daughter that she wasn’t taking it away because she did anything blatantly wrong.
Barrymore just decided she herself wasn’t ready.
It’s simply that I am not ready either to allow my kids to have a phone. Remember my childhood? How are we allowing kids to just have this much access? For brains that are not fully developed? And group texts? These texts can get so toxic.
Sounds like Barrymore is an outstanding parent. If only more parents were this involved!
