From a worryingly early age, babies seem to just know what a phone is.
Or at least, they work out that a phone is important – and lots of fun to use.
This realisation probably comes as a result of the (approx) 74,478,246 times a phone will be waved in your baby’s face to get a photo in their first year alone.
It’s not always possible to police this – but where does it leave you?
In short: With a child who’s always after mum or dad’s mobile. All those games and apps, all those photos – all that access to the internet.
At some point your kid will have a mobile – that’s practically an inevitability.
But if you want to deter them from always reaching for yours, there is a simple measure iPhone AND Android users can take – launch Grayscale mode.
As Go Gray reports, turning your phone black and white helps to reduce the bright shininess of the screen, replacing it with more calming colours.
To activate this, you go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Display Accommodations, and turn on colour filters, then select “Grayscale”.
If you’re an Android user, then you’ll need The Digital Wellness Application by Google .
So how does this put your kids off using your phone?
Mamamia featured the tip on podcast Mamamia Out Loud and many parents wrote back in response having tried out the tip.
“My kids’ interest in my devices has also dropped dramatically!” wrote one listener.
“I think it’s very effective for the scrolling and have made the shortcut so I can quickly turn back to colour to check my Whatsapp etc.
“And yesterday at swimming lessons my youngest asked to look at my phone, saw the colour and said ‘it’s broken’ and gave it back! So that’s a win,” wrote another.
It seems by going grey your phone is suddenly a lot less interesting.
What do you reckon – worth a try?