The Patrick Madrid Show: May 06, 2026 - Hour 3
The Patrick Madrid Show
Relevant Radio
4.8 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hour 3
Patrick brings the smartphone struggle front and center, questioning why tech and social media seem to influence children more than their own families. Parents call in with raw confessions, regrets, and inventive solutions, from holding out on smartphones to battling the sneaky ways kids get around controls, while stories of bikes, banana seats, and even Maseratis bring humor and a touch of nostalgia to the mix. Rules, boundaries, and values collide with modern tech, leaving listeners weighing connection, safety, and family sanity in a world where a phone can change everything.
- Audio: Once kids get smart phones, family life turns into a fight over screen time . . . - https://x.com/drantbradley/status/2012876836502405511 (00:23)
- Audio: just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean your kids should do it too - https://x.com/modernxdad/status/2015262851414544684 (02:21)
- Todd - Smart phone: I challenge you to switch to a flip phone and have kids watch Gun Smoke (09:14)
- Liz - We are a family of smart phone holdouts, and we gave our kids flip phones and my kids don't care. (10:25)
- Melissa - A counselor told me that I should get my kid a phone so she could feel more part of other kids' social circles. That was the beginning of the end. (19:36)
- Jorge - From where I come from, we didn't have TVs. I think I can enjoy the benefit of learning without it. I compare the TVs of yesterday to the phone today. (23:29)
- Jessica - Smart phones: Somethings that helped me prolong the eventuality of kids getting a phone was a straight A report card. (29:09)
- Gloria - Smart phone: I set parameters for my kids. My children wanted them at a young age. I did a lot of research before getting them phones. We used a lot of the parental controls available. I think it is working out. (34:14)
- Marie - I have a teenager and a preteen. I totally agree with Patrick. My 10-year-old hacked my iPad and removed restrictions. (40:27)
- Andrew - I am a parent of 6 kids. I struggle with how smart phones can lead to the sin of envy. (44:31)
- John - My college age son argues that killing in video games is moral and I argue it is not. Can you help me? (49:02)
Originally Aired On 01-29-2026
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Compelling insights, unpredictable conversations, |
| 0:12.6 | encouragement for your day. |
| 0:14.6 | It's the Patrick Madrid show on relevant radio. |
| 0:18.8 | Once kids get a phone in social media, the rest of family life turns into a fight over screen time. |
| 0:25.5 | And this is happening everywhere. |
| 0:26.6 | This is happening in Silicon Valley where the parents know what's going on. |
| 0:30.5 | In fact, in Silicon Valley, you're much more likely to find parents who say, no, you cannot have this because we know how bad it is. |
| 0:36.5 | Why do we give our 10-year-olds a phone? |
| 0:38.2 | The main reason is because everyone else did. We don't want our daughter to be the only one who's |
| 0:42.4 | left out. I'm facing this now with my 14-year-old daughter on Snapchat. So the tech companies |
| 0:48.6 | put us in a bind and then they're trying to blame us for what they did. They, a few companies, |
| 0:53.6 | three or four companies, largely own childhood now. They have far more influence on our children than we do, at least in terms of the amount of time they can spend influencing. They vastly exceed the power of parents. And then they want to say, oh, but, you know, it's your fault. No, it's their fault. How do you feel about that? Good morning, by the way. Welcome to the Patrick Madrid Show. |
| 1:13.1 | Parents especially, how do you feel about that? How do you feel about an industry, and we're talking |
| 1:18.6 | here about smartphones being given to children, that TikTok has far more influence on what your |
| 1:25.7 | children are thinking and believing and saying and doing |
| 1:29.3 | than you do. And that's true for many families across this country and around the world as well. |
| 1:36.4 | Cyrus, thanks for playing that. We have another audio clip here. We're going to go next to, I think, 52. |
| 1:42.9 | And this ties in with the issue of why it's such a terrible idea, |
| 1:47.6 | terrible, terrible, terrible, to give your children smartphones. And when I say children, |
| 1:51.5 | I'm really talking, you want me to put all my cards on the table. I would say below the age of 18. |
| 1:57.4 | Even 18 is dicey, but, you know, when they have legal adulthood, things are a bit different different there but to give your child a smartphone as i've always said it's like giving him a stick of dynamite |
| 2:06.8 | and expecting it not to go off and it will go off so let's play clip 51 this i'm sorry not 51 let's play clip 52 which which sort of tags on to the commentary that you heard just a minute ago. If my child comes and says, Mama, everyone has a phone. I want a phone. Immediately, my God, my kid is the only one who doesn't have a phone in the class. Oh, he's going to feel left out. I don't want him to get bullied. |
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