Setting Up Your Family

After creating your account, the next step is adding your children. Each child gets their own profile with personalized settings created through our setup wizard.

Adding a Child

From the Parent Portal dashboard, click “Add Child”. You’ll be asked to choose a setup approach:

Collaborative Setup (Recommended)

~15-30 minutes, done together with your child

This approach involves your child in creating their Device Availability Plan. Children who help create the rules are more likely to follow them.

Parent-Only Setup

~5 minutes, done by parent alone

Complete the setup yourself and discuss with your child later. Good for when time is limited or children are very young.

Collaborative Setup Steps (9 Steps)

Step 1: Basic Information

Display Name - What your child wants to be called in Thriva
Legal Name (optional) - For future school integrations
Birthday - Used to calculate age for recommendations
Pronouns (optional) - he/him, she/her, they/them, other, or prefer not to say

Step 2: Child’s Goals

Ask your child: “What are your goals for this year?”

They can enter up to 5 goals, one per line. Examples:

Make the basketball team
Get an A in algebra
Finish my graphic novel
Learn to code

Step 3: Child’s Challenges

Ask your child: “What gets in the way of reaching those goals?”

They can enter up to 5 challenges. Examples:

Getting distracted during homework
Staying up too late on my phone
Watching too many YouTube videos

Step 4: Device Help & Hindrance

Two questions for your child:

When do devices HELP you? (research, tutorials, staying connected with friends)
When do devices GET IN THE WAY? (homework time, bedtime, family meals)

Step 5: Understanding the Three Modes

An education screen explaining the three device modes:

Free Time - Full access to any app or website
Focused Mode - ThrivaOS dashboard with approved apps only
Quiet Time - Device completely paused

Step 6: Free Time Budget (Optional)

Set a daily limit for free screen time:

Age Range	Suggested Limit
Elementary (6-11)	1 hour 30 minutes
Middle School (12-14)	2 hours
High School (15-18)	3 hours

Options:

Enable or disable the budget
Set daily time limit
Allow rollover of unused time to the next day
Choose what happens when budget runs out (Focused Mode or Quiet Time)

Step 7: Schedule Builder

Create a weekly schedule using time blocks:

Weekday blocks:

Morning Routine
School Day
Homework Time
Evening
Bedtime

Weekend blocks:

Morning
Afternoon
Evening
Bedtime

For each block, choose a mode: Free Time, Focused, or Quiet Time.

Step 8: Why These Modes?

For key time blocks, add reasons from both perspectives:

Child’s perspective: “Why does this mode work for me…”
Parent’s perspective: “Why this mode makes sense…”

This creates shared understanding and buy-in.

Step 9: Review & Agreement

See the complete schedule summary and confirm together:

Child checkbox: “[Name] agrees to this plan”
Parent checkbox: “Parent agrees to support this plan”
Review date: When you’ll check in together (default: 14 days)

Parent-Only Setup (7 Steps)

Includes Steps 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 from above (skips child goals/challenges and detailed reasons). You can add this information later.

What Gets Saved

Each child’s profile stores:

Basic info (name, birthday, pronouns)
Personal goals and self-identified challenges
Device availability schedule
Budget settings (if enabled)
AI notes (learned over time)

Managing Profiles Later

From the Parent Portal, you can:

Edit any profile information
Adjust schedules and budgets
View connected device accounts
See AI-learned insights
Update the review date

Connecting to Devices

After creating a child’s profile, you’ll need to:

A child can have multiple device accounts (laptop, desktop, tablet) - when you change their mode, all their accounts change together.

Tips for Success

Do it together - Collaborative setup takes longer but pays off in compliance
Start simple - You can always adjust schedules later
Revisit regularly - Honor the review date you set together
Be flexible - The first schedule rarely needs to be perfect