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More parents are installing landlines for their kids and the benefits are undeniable

Memorizing numbers is making a comeback.

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More parents are installing landlines for their kids; the benefits are undeniable.

Do you remember chatting with your friends on a three-way call, wrapping the phone cord around your finger while you got the scoop on what happened during 4th-period lunch? If not, then you were probably born after cellphones became the norm. But for older people, a time was had back then—and now, today's kids might get to experience that nostalgic telephone experience, too.

More parents are starting to install landline phones for their kids instead of getting them cellphones. Older generations often complain that Gen Z seems to lack social skills, but they're the first generation to grow up without house phones. It turns out that all those hours spent chatting on the landline may have been a key factor in developing effective communication skills.

kids cell phone; kids landline; landlines; communication; low tech life; old school parenting; social skills Relaxing chat with a vintage vibe.Photo credit: Canva

However, for parents now, the development of communication skills is a welcome, unexpected side effect of trying to keep their kids off smartphones for a little longer. In 2025, it may seem imperative that a child have a cellphone so they can stay in touch with their family members. Latchkey kids may be seen as a thing of the past, but they still exist when kids age out of after-school care. That means parents who are concerned about safety may turn to cellphones a little earlier than they'd like to make sure their kids make it into the house after getting off the bus.

A cellphone may help a child communicate that they've made it home, but it doesn't protect them from the dangers of having unfettered access to the Internet and social media. This is why some parents are turning to landlines again, and they're pleasantly surprised by the results.

kids cell phone; kids landline; landlines; communication; low tech life; old school parenting; social skills Children immersed in their smartphones outdoors.Photo credit: Canva

"My husband and I decided to kind of pause the screen path that so many people were on, but we pivoted and surprised her with a landline," Caron Morse tells The Today Show.

The mom was able to convince a few other parents to join in, watching the circle of landlines grow for her daughter. However, having a constantly busy phone wasn't the sweet side effect—it was the increased communication skills. "It sounds so weird to say that bringing a landline into the house was my smartest parenting choice, but in my heart I really feel like this was an important pivot," the mom says.

Paul Zalewski, co-founder of Fathercraft, shares with Parents Magazine that he installed a cordless landline complete with an answering machine for his kids. He tells the magazine that the shift was deliberate so his kids can practice real conversations, adding, “Their overall communication has become more intentional. Since the landline is voice only, they think before they speak. [The phone] has played a crucial role in building confidence and competence. The older one, in particular, has taken on small adult-like tasks, such as calling to confirm logistics or leaving an important message. We see that responsibility translates into other areas of independence.”

kids cell phone; kids landline; landlines; communication; low tech life; old school parenting; social skills Boy absorbed in his phone, lying on a cozy bed.Photo credit: Canva

It was even great for their listening skills. The same thing goes for parents who have ditched full-time cell phone use to have a landline in the house. Patty Schepel writes for The Every Mom about her unexpected positive outcome when she switched to using a landline for a week after realizing her child was competing with her phone for attention.

She explains, "My goal was to get rid of my phone-separation anxiety, and I wanted to be more present with my kids. However, I was floored by all the additional benefits that came out of this experience." She lists, "I sat with my thoughts. I was in a better mood. I felt more present with my kids. I noticed fewer behavioral issues with my son. I was more productive. I called my friends and had more meaningful conversations." Schepel says the experiment made her realize that she didn't actually need to be connected all the time or jump onto the emotional rollercoaster that is social media.

kids cell phone; kids landline; landlines; communication; low tech life; old school parenting; social skills Kids enjoying screen time together outside.Photo credit: Canva

Giving a child a smartphone is a huge decision, especially if it's not a restricted phone like the Bark or Gabb phones that allow complete parental control. However, even with phones like that, introducing the phone can create a habit that some parents may not be ready to contend with. Childhood digital safety expert for Bark Technologies, Titania Jordan, tells Parents Magazine, “Slow, intentional access protects kids from the dangers and stress of life online. I’ve never met a parent who wished they’d handed over tech earlier—only ones who wish they’d waited longer. This landline trend is just one sign of a larger move toward slower, lower-tech childhoods.”

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Gen Xers and Millennials watch Gen Z kids try, and gloriously fail, to write in cursive

The Cursive Challenge has many calling it a lost art.

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Cursive is a fading art.

If you're on TikTok, you've more than likely seen "The Cursive Challenge," at some point over the years. Parents–and even teachers–get the Gen Z-ers in their lives to attempt a style of writing that is no longer taught in many schools.

The videos range from people who are truly earnest in their attempt at the challenge to those who are hilariously baffled by the fact that cursive writing even exists at all. One such person was Chaun Domingue (@Chaundomingue on TikTok), who tries to get his Gen Z daughter to pass the test. He gives her a handful of words, and she gives it an honest try until she adorably devolves into a giggling fit. He then shows her how it's done.

@chaundomingue

@maggles_77 trying to write in cursive. 🤣

Even celebrities have gotten in on the fun. On the Cincinnati Bengals TikTok page, a handful of NFL football players give it their all. Handed just a whiteboard and an erasable marker, they're asked to write "Bengals" in cursive. While the first player tries, we hear someone admit, "I haven't written in cursive since, like, fifth grade." They're good sports (of course), and some do a decent enough job, but for the most part, it's a "B" followed by unrecognizable squiggles – which gives everyone a good-natured laugh.

The comment section had some notes. One points out that Chase Brown "had the biggest smile on his face like he was so proud of his work." Another notes that "Mac (Hippenhammer) just adding a bunch of extra end letters."

@bengals

Well… they tried 😅 #cursive #handwriting #nfl #bengals #dailychallenge #itriedmybest

The style of writing remains a hot topic. Over on the Southern Living blog, writers Valerie Fraser Luesse and Zoe Gowen make a case for the style in "5 Reasons Why Everyone Should Know Cursive." The gist of the post, at least for the writers, is that cursive writing is a nostalgic tradition. "Cursive is a lost art. Scratch that. It's an art. It's not lost quite yet. When you write in cursive, you are encouraged to embrace your creative side."

They also maintain that it's faster than writing in print and, quite simply, "It looks nice." "A flowing cursive is one step closer to the art of calligraphy, and it's a necessity if you want to sign your name in a formal fashion."

But many on Reddit seem conflicted. On the subreddit r/stupidquestions, someone essentially asks why we stopped teaching cursive. The top comment answers pragmatically: "Because it’s hard to read, and with the onset of everyone using technology, with the fonts we have on the screens in front of us, it’s just what we’re used to now. Calligraphy is an art, and there are plenty of calligraphy artists online making videos of their work." But they add a hopeful note: "For what it's worth, they still teach cursive in schools, at least in Australia. And GPs (general practitioners) the world over are keeping cursive alive, too."

Another Redditor agrees: "I wrote in cursive until teachers asked me to stop in 7th grade. Students would exchange work and grade each other, but apparently, a number of students had complained they couldn't read my cursive. Even knowing cursive, I struggle to decipher the handwriting from the colonial era. If I am looking at primary sources, it's easier translating ancient Latin than reading English from a personal letter of a 17th-century politician."

cursive, gif, handwriting, cursive writing, calligraphyRed Nails Thank You GIF by Hello AllGiphy

This person adds a technical explanation: "Because today, we have pens which can be lifted without dropping ink, which would screw up writing. Technology evolved, and we adapted to use the fastest way, which is not cursive but some kind of hybrid."

However, some still prefer it. "I'm probably one of the few people who finds it much easier to write in cursive, probably because I was never taught to write in print. For context, I went to primary school in France in the 2010s. I'm not sure if they still teach it now, but I think the majority must still do."

This comment surprisingly got some negative feedback: "Many U.S. states now require cursive as part of the elementary school curriculum. Good! Why? Because it's a 'grown-up' skill that should be a normal part of a child's social education – like self-feeding, potty-training, and self-dressing. Also, because cursive writing is expressive and beautiful. Print is common and clunky. And, as a poet once put it, 'If eyes were meant for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being.'"

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Education

People think Gen Z lacks resilience because they've been 'coddled.' Let's unpack that myth.

It's not that Gen Z hasn't seen enough. They've actually seen too much.

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Gen Z was raised in an entirely different world.

As a parent of three Gen Z kids, I’ve spent lots of time up close with today’s teens and young adults. Looking at my kids and their Gen Z peers (ranging from age 13 to 28), I’ve noticed where the stereotypes of their generation hit the mark and where they miss. Some stereotypes are just typical complaints that older generations always have of "young people these days," but there's one barb that Gen Xers and boomers frequently throw out that I think is way off: Gen Zers lack resilience because they've been coddled and protected from the harsh realities of life.

If we use "the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties" as a working definition of "resilience," I find Gen Z to be a mixed bag. Some of them show great resilience, some don't. A 4,000-person survey from Cigna Group found that Gen Z struggles with mental health more than older generations do, however, and child psychologist Stuart Lustig calls Gen Z "the loneliest, least resilient demographic alive today." Maybe that's true. But is it really because they've been coddled?

It's not that Gen Z hasn't seen enough. They've actually seen too much.

Some argue that the “participation trophies” and “trigger warnings” have made young people unable to handle hard things. Others argue that parents are too easy on their children. I'll concede that some Gen X parents swung the pendulum too far from their neglected childhoods, becoming "helicopter parents" who resisted allowing their kids to experience the risks, failures and disappointments that ultimately build resilience. But the idea that Gen Z as a whole has been "coddled"—overly sheltered from the harsh realities of life? That one is strange to me.

These are kids who have done active shooter drills in their classrooms their entire childhoods, and not just as a “this is something that could happen” but as a “this actually does happen with alarming regularity.” Boomer and older Gen Xers may have hid under their desks in Cold War bomb drills, but no bombs were actually ever dropped in the U.S. Gen Zers have seen the aftermath of their peers being murdered in classrooms over and over again.

What Gen Z has been exposed to is mind-boggling compared to what their parents saw ask kids, thanks to being the first generation to never know a world without the internet. Where Gen X had access to a daily newspaper and a half hour of nightly world news, Gen Z has been subjected to constant sensationalized news streams on cable TV and the internet 24/7. But it's not just the vast amount of news. Thanks to smartphone cameras and social media, today's teens and young adults have also borne witness to scenes of violence, tragedy, and trauma unfolding in real-time, on-the-ground, all around the world.

five young adults standing looking at their phonesGen Z is the first full "digital native" generation.Photo credit: Canva

Where boomers and Gen X might have seen someone's dad's Playboys, Gen Z has grown up with devices that contain disturbing, hardcore pornography. Even if they haven't accessed or tripped across explicit content themselves, it's very likely that someone in their peer group has shown them pornography that kids in previous generations would never have been able to access. And it's happening at younger and younger ages.

There's no precedent for the world Gen Z grew up in

There's anxiety that comes along with all of this exposure, even for full-grown adults who have a foundation of a simpler time to reflect back on. Gen Z never had a simpler time. They were born into the ocean of anxiety. Then they got hit by a once-in-a-century (hopefully) global pandemic, adding another layer of uncertainty to the mix.

As a whole, Gen Z hasn’t been sheltered from the harsh realities of the world; it's been bombarded by them in ways that previous generations simply weren’t during their youth. Humans—even children—have experienced hard things things for millennia and evolved to build resilience to life's challenges. What humans haven't experienced until now is having an overload of information and tragic news and disturbing content from around the world available at their fingertips 24/7. There's simply no precedent for raising kids in this world, so raising Gen Z has been one big collective experiment.

Even if conscientious parents have done their best to protect their kids from its pitfalls, the internet is not a separate thing from our lives like it was in its early days. Gen Z has grown up in a digitally connected world. Even parents who manage to hold off on phones or other internet-enabled devices longer than most eventually had to give because it's become nearly impossible to be an active participant in society without the internet. Those of us who grew up in a non-digital world can attest to how much the internet has changed our lives in various, often drastic, ways. Gen Z was born into that world, and despite being "digital natives" are not immune to the anxiety and overwhelm that comes with it.

Maybe we need to rethink what resilience looks like for the "digital native" generations

All of this means that resilience for Gen Z may look different than it did for us. Their young brains have been taxed in ways ours were not. They've had to process so much more, filter so much more, learn how to navigate so much more than we did. I actually think they're doing pretty well, all things considered. They may struggle with mental health a bit more than previous generations, but they're also so much more aware of it and willing to get help with it. They may not stay in jobs with unhealthy work environments and poor work-life balance, but that doesn't mean they're soft—quite the opposite, in fact.

I'm not saying Gen Z couldn't use some good old-fashioned life lessons about picking themselves up and dusting themselves off. But I do think we need to acknowledge that being the first internet-enabled generation has affected them in ways we are just beginning to grasp, and that adjusting our expectations of resilience and reevaluating what resilience looks like for them might be in order.

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It turns out Gen Z is resistant to driving and maybe they’re onto something

A growing number of young people say they're afraid to get behind the wheel.

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The percent of teens getting their driver's licenses has declined signifcantly.

If it feels like you're meeting more and more older teens and young adults who don't have their driver's license, it's not your imagination. Gen Z has been much less interested in driving than previous generations, according to Department of Transportation data shared by USA Today.

In 1983, about half of 16-year-olds had driver's licenses. By 2022, that number declined to about a quarter. During that same time, 18-year-olds with driver's licenses dropped from 80% to 60%.

There are some explanations for what's caused the drop. For one, thanks to video calling, young people don't need to drive to see each other like previous generations did. Even if they do get together in person, improvements in public transportation and the proliferation of ride share offerings like Uber and Lyft have made it easier to do so without a car. Driving is also expensive, especially when you take the higher insurance premiums of young drivers into account. Gen Z has grown up more environmentally conscious than previous generations, and have grown up hearing about the blight of carbon emissions on the planet.

But in addition to that, there appears to be a sharp increase in anxiety around driving, and some experienced adult drivers are defending those fears as warranted.

According to a survey of non-driving teens by insurance comparison website The Zebra, nearly 1 in 4 said that they haven't gotten a license because they are afraid to drive a car. While it's easy to chock that up to the general increase in mental health disorders among young people, the fear of driving may be warranted.

In our car dependent society, choosing not to drive might seem like an odd decision, but there may be some wisdom behind it. As a user on X posted, "Honestly, I don't understand why ppl shame teens for not wanting to know how to drive. Why do we act like it's not terrifying?" and many people shared their experiences of car accidents really messing them up.

Statistically speaking, driving is the most dangerous thing most humans do, and Americans do it more than any other nation. But because we drive so often, the risk factor isn't something we think about as much as maybe we should.

Young people learning to drive today are logically more aware of the risks than previous generations. Ask a boomer what they learned in Driver's Ed and it's a far cry from what Gen Z learns. Boomers didn't even have required seat belts when they learned to drive. Kids today have not only grown up with seat belts but with high tech car seats and various booster seat iterations specific to their age and size. Those safety restraints keep us all safer, of course, but they are also a constant reminder of the dangers inherent in being in a moving vehicle. Being a passenger is one thing, but the responsibility of being the driver of that moving vehicle is entirely another.

Driver education courses have also evolved over the years to include graphic warnings about driving under the influence and distracted driving, which previous generations only got a fraction of. The idea is to scare teens who believe they're immortal into understanding the danger that comes with doing those things, but for young people who are already prone to feeling anxious, seeing those terrifying scenarios can make the fear of driving worse. Most young people I've spoken to who have completed Driver's Ed but aren't in any hurry to get their license say that driving just makes them too nervous. Some of them have decided after a couple of years that they wanted their license, so it's just delayed a bit. Others don't have any plans to and seem to be doing fine with other ways of getting around.

Holding off on driving simply doesn't need to be viewed negatively, especially when the risks of driving are real. Driving may be a valuable skill to have, but there's no reason that skill has to be mastered by a certain age. If a good portion of Gen Z isn't feeling it and choose to walk or bike or carpool or use public transportation instead, more power to them. Those choices are more affordable and better for the environment anyway, so let's embrace the idea that choosing not to drive is a reasonable one and not judge or shame anyone for it.

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