HGTV’s Erin Napier Defends Bold Parenting Move

HGTV star Erin Napier wants to turn back the clock for kids and give them a simpler childhood. Smartphones and social media make that more challenging these days, but she believes it can be done — beginning with a landline phone!

Erin Napier Is a Fan of a ’90s Childhood’

On June 14, Napier took to Instagram to make a case for giving kids a less complicated childhood.

“ospreykids.com is almost 30,000 families strong. get you a landline, give them a 90s childhood, they might learn to sew or build things or catch lobsters or grow their own vegetables then eat them and/or sell them, they might write a song, or read an extra book or ten this summer,” she wrote in the caption.

Napier continued, “But what they won’t be: addicted to a screen that gives them fake experiences. i send out an email to the osprey list about once a year, if i feel like it. honestly, busy living real life out here and don’t spend much time on it. but anyway, reminder you can do this with collective action. if you want to.”

The video provided an introduction to Osprey, with a letter typed to parents on a typewriter noting, “Remember growing up without smartphones? We explored. We were daring. We danced like no one was watching.”

The letter continued, “Teenagers who delay social media until graduation have self assurance, deeper interests, sharper minds.”

“Social media can wait. If we band together while they’re little,” the letter concluded. “Let’s make old school the new way.”

What Is Osprey?

In a July 2023 Instagram post, Napier explained the organization. OSPREY stands for Old School Parents Raising Engaged Youth.

She explained at the time, “My friends parenting smart phone-free middle schoolers have had a brutal experience of seeing their child left out, even though research tells us social media is as addictive and destructive for developing brains as any drug.”

Napier continued, “This made me think: my kindergartener doesn’t expect to drive a car before she’s old enough. She doesn’t expect to own a house of her own before she’s old enough. If we build a culture in our home and school now where she doesn’t expect access to the entire world in her pocket until she’s much older, we can set her up for success.”

She shared that at some point, “a simple phone that can just call and text will be great.”

“Forming a circle of families and friends who are in this together when your kids are little, linking arms and doing what it takes to give your kids the gift of a social media free adolescence is the only way we change the culture,” Napier said.

She noted, “We have a vision and a plan to give our kids support that starts now and takes them through high school graduation. Let’s make old school the new way.”