It works. That is not in dispute and it is the reason it gets used. The question worth asking is what it costs you, because it is not free.
What you are actually spending
Taking the phone is the largest lever in the house. Every time it is used for something ordinary, two things happen: the child adjusts to life without it a little faster, and you have one fewer thing to reach for next time. Used weekly, it stops being a shock within about a month.
Anything used often enough becomes weather. Weather is endured, not learned from.
The version that does less damage
| Instead of | Try | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Taking it for a week | Taking it for the evening | Short enough to feel like a boundary, not a siege |
| Taking it for anything | Taking it for the two or three things that genuinely matter | Keeps it meaning something |
| Taking it as the opener | Naming the thing first, out loud, once | Most of the time that is the whole intervention |
The one rule worth keeping
Never take away something they earned. Screen time you gave is yours to pause. Screen time they worked for is a debt you are calling in, and a child who learns that anything earned can be taken back stops treating earning as worth doing.