Every night of exam month begins the same way.
A negotiation about the phone, conducted by two tired people.
The fix is not a stricter rule, it is a piece of paper written before any of it starts.
Why write anything down?
Because memory is not neutral at nine at night.
The child remembers being allowed an hour, you remember saying half.
A written page ends that argument in four seconds.
Writing it together also changes who owns the rules.
A rule your child helped write gets defended by your child.
An announced rule only gets tested.
One page, on the fridge or above the study table, handwritten is perfectly fine.
Do it on a Sunday, before the timetable arrives, when nobody is upset.
What goes on the page?
Keep it short enough to read at a glance.
- The study blocks, with real start and end times.
- Where each device sits during those blocks.
- What is allowed in a break, and how long a break is.
- One slot a day for the class group.
- Where phones charge at night.
- What to do when a rule blocks genuine work, and who to ask.
That last line matters more than it looks.
Without it, the first legitimate need becomes the excuse that ends the charter.
Add a review date, roughly a week in.
A charter you can adjust once is one everybody keeps.
What do parents agree to?
This is the part that decides whether any of it works.
Write your own rules on the same page, in the same handwriting.
No television in the study room during study blocks.
Your phone away at dinner, not just theirs.
No work calls on speaker outside their door.
Study hours protected from errands, guests and long phone calls to relatives.
And a promise not to bring up marks during a break.
Children accept a great deal when the rules are clearly not only for them.
What happens when someone breaks it?
Decide this in advance, while everyone is calm.
Keep the consequence small, specific and immediate, because a large punishment simply never gets used.
Fifteen minutes added to the next study block is enough.
Give everyone one grace slip for the whole exam season, to be used without an argument.
It sounds soft, and it prevents most of the fights.
If the same rule breaks three times, the rule is wrong, not the child.
Fix it at the review, sign the page again, and carry on.
Things to Remember
- Write the page together, on a calm Sunday, before exams begin.
- Include how to get an exception for genuine work.
- Put the parents' own rules on the same page.
- Agree a small, immediate consequence in advance.
- Review it after a week, and change what is not working.