The teacher in school told me that she did it with her kids, she totally stop all eletronic games for her 2 kids. At first I was skeptical! I mean.. really!?!?!? HOw??? I talked to Chris that night and we decided that ya, we can't just limit their usage because they are really missing out on so much more wonderful stuff when they are eating, thinking, living in the digital world. So this is it!
We have stopped all smart phone usage for them except for some selected computer games and selected (recorded) suitable TV shows. But it's not easy of course. There's were some withdrawal syndromes, but we stuck to it and in place of it, we started spending more 'quality' time (as mentioned in my last post) playing board games, reading, cooking, planting together. So I guess we are on the right track. Now the challenge is to keep it up and be consistent!
We had some troubles... one main one being other kids having these games and their friends talking and playing these games which they are not allowed to... Well, as a mom, I don't want him to hate me for a start! and I don't want them to the weird kid that did not fit in as well. I tried to explain to him that not all the things that everyone is doing is the right thing to do. I explain to him why we have chosen not to play all these games at all was so that we can have more fun doing other stuff. I can feel him feeling sad when we go out and other parents let their kids play the phone and he doesn't get to play it. But I guess this is part of life, you have to choose what's best for you and your kids. Not what everyone else is doing. Change is painful and a process, it takes time, yet change is necessary for something better.
And another thing that I'm trying to do... (haven't figure it out yet) is to cut down digital time for me as well! Children learn through modelling. They learn their ways through imitating and habits at home. You can see why the child behave in certain ways when you see the parents and siblings. They all behave the same/similar ways. It's quite cute actually! SOoo.. where did they first learn to play these electronic games? through us! the Adults in their life!
When I first got my smart phone, I was so excited as I can do so much when during the time I'm breastfeeding or waiting in line... etc... But I realised I am compromising my quality with my baby. I used to sing rhymes and prayers to my other kids when I breastfeed them. Now, I'm just checking my emails and facebook when I feed Tyler... I think smart phones are a wonderful inventions and I still my smartphone but if we're not careful it's consuming our lives, we are no longer living the moments and we are compromising on more important things in life.
I saw this video... it's so true and sad isn't it?
http://youtu.be/OINa46HeWg8
This is from a book that I'm reading now, I can't find the quote that I wanted to share... but it has something to do with comparing kids getting addicted to these electronics as losing your child's soul to the digital world... Scary! you wont see the effects until they are older but habits start from young, so we should be really careful what we are giving to our kids.
Will do a little book review later on but this is another good read for anyone who has son/s. I realized my problem of not getting through to my kids may be because I'm not a boy! I have 3 boys so I probably need to know understand them and how to talk to them.
Boys Should Be Boys: 7 Secrets to Raising Healthy Sons by
http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Should-Be-Secrets-Raising/dp/034551369X
(you can read some pages of the book on amazon, and there're some great reviews by other parents.)
http://www.cumcmemphis.org/assets/1549/boys_should_be_boys_review.pdf
(I googled the title and this came up- a summary/content of what's in this book, have a read :)
1 comment:
Some good thoughts. We, too have been sucked into the digital world. Since I homeschool my 6 year old, we use the iPad for a lot of educational apps, which so very handy. But I have limited non school apps to the weekends. I sometimes think about cutting them out altogether, but I am not there yet. We try to have a non-tech day once in awhile as well. We tried once a week, but now are doing once a month. It's hard because both me and my husband work from home and most of our work is through the computer. But we are trying to improve.
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