Erin Napier of ‘Home Town’ Is Following 1 Strict Rule When Raising Her Kids
Erin Napier of HGTV’s Home Town is taking a stand. The mom of two and her husband, Ben Napier, have decided that they won’t be getting either of their girls a smartphone. In an Instagram post, Erin explained why she and Ben wanted to keep their daughters off of devices and social media for as long as they can.
Erin Napier explained her no-smartphone rule for her daughters in an Instagram post
Erin recently took to Instagram to talk about her own smartphone-free childhood and how she wanted Helen, 5, and Mae, 20 months, to have a similar sense of safety and security growing up.
The Home Town Takeover host recalled how she was able to explore her artistic side – especially her passion for photography – while she was a teen without feeling pressure to share it with the world.
“I am so thankful I grew up without the crushing pressure of social media,” she wrote. “As a highly sensitive artistic kid, the criticism or silence of ‘likes’ would’ve hurt me deeply. It would have shaped me into someone, something else.”
Now that she’s a parent herself, Erin worries about what messages her daughters might get from social media when they are older. The fear that they’d be hurt by harsh criticism led her and Ben to decide to keep Helen and Mae off of social media for as long as possible.
“We and all our closest friends have made an agreement that until our kids are grown, they won’t have smartphones bought on our dime. That way, they can’t say ‘but all my friends have one,’ she wrote.
“Is it mean to keep them from communicating with smartphones? I don’t care,” Erin added. “I’m also keeping them from finding a distorted picture of who they think they need to be, porn, hate, the criticism of strangers. Childhood is so short. We’re gonna savor every last second of our girls that we can.”
Many people supported the ‘Home Town’ star’s decision
Erin’s heartfelt post resonated with her social media followers. Many applauded her decision to give her daughters a more old-fashioned kind of childhood.
“As a high school teacher who competes against devices for my students’ attention every day, and a mother of 4 teenagers, I agree with your choice,” one person replied.
“Yes to all this!!! My daughter is 14.5 and has no phone,” another commented.
A number of people agreed with Erin’s no-smartphone stance in theory. But they pointed out that it’s easy to lay down such a rule when kids are young and much harder to enforce as they grow older. Others pointed out that her children might need a phone for safety reasons or to complete school assignments.
“Parenting teens is so easy when you have toddlers/preschoolers,” one wrote.
Ben and Erin Napier dealt with a scary stalking incident involving their daughter
Erin is far from the only parent with concerns about social media. But a frightening incident involving one of her daughters could be making her extra cautious about them spending time online.
In an Instagram post from May 2022, Erin opened up about a man who moved to her and Ben’s hometown of Laurel, Miss.
The man “had come to town and was saying some very strange things. Things like ‘God sent me here to protect the women of Laurel, specifically little Helen.’ He had bought a house a block from ours and was living in it with nothing but a suitcase and these toys for when my 3-year-old daughter ‘comes over to visit.’”
The man was eventually “sent back to [California],” Erin recalled. But the incident left her and Ben shaken. The couple rarely shares photos of their girls on social media, and usually with their faces hidden. For Erin, it’s all about keeping her kids safe. Dealing with a stalker“further validated what I already knew,” she wrote. “Protect your kids in the online world much as you can.”
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