No big surprise that kids these days (and adults) are watching far too much tv, or too much time on their phones, playing games, or social media scrolling, etc. And sometimes the idea of cutting it out can be so overwhelming. I can remember many times where I needed those moments of down time and cartoons on to be able to load the dishwasher without 499 interruptions. But take a step back and look at the big picture. Really look at how much of your day is spent looking at a screen or device.
It is time to set some boundaries. One boundary I have is my phone. Phones cost us WAY too much money to be broken by little fingers. I do not have games on my phone for my kids. I also don't want to risk the chance of them deleting my pictures. So they never get to use my phone and it is just the way it is. They never even ask.
When Leah was young, about 8 months old, I would put pandora on my phone and lock it and give it to her to rock out with as I did dishes or folded laundry. Well big mistake on that one. It was quite the process over time to re-train the fact that my phone was off limits. It was a struggle but we got through it and now she doesn't ask to have my phone, phew, survived that obstacle.
Another thing I think is important is detoxing. I talk about detoxing a lot, from many different things. But here I am using it to remove the habit of tv watching. In my house, my kids are on day SIX of no tv. They also don't have tablets or any electronic devices, so they have been six days with out any sort of electronic. They didn't get into trouble or anything, I just decided to detox from it. One thing I hate most is when my older kiddo (4 years old) wakes up in the morning and asks for cartoons. Before we are even out of bed! It drives me crazy. So six days ago I decided, "NOPE", no cartoons today. And the next day was the same answer. Now for the last three days he hasn't even asked ONCE for any cartoons at all. I am just loving this. My 2 year old could care less about cartoons so she would never ask. We have a busy weekend and next week so I am just going to keep it up as long as I possibly can.
This isn't the first time I have done this. I often "take away" tv for days on end. I like to make sure my kiddos aren't addicted to it. I will also go through phases where the only thing they can watch is educational. My kiddo LOVE Bill Nye the Science Guy, thank you Netflix!
I can remember meeting moms who told me they didn't let there kids watch tv and I thought they were crazy. In my head I had my mouth gapping open and eyes wide and the thought of never letting my kids watch cartoons, because I needed it. I really did. I had such bad morning sickness with my second pregnancy that there were mornings I couldn't barely move. If my son (2 years old at the time) wasn't chilling out, watching cartoons, I don't know what I would have done.
But Lisa, you drive to Montana and the Gorge a few times a year, you MUST have dvd players or tablets for your kids... Right? Um, no. I actually don't. I know, I am totally that crazy mom who doesn't give them to her kids. And I can't say it won't be in our future. But Jaymeson(4) has been to Montana six times, the Gorge four times, and other random vacations and has never had electronics in the car. Leonora was an awful car rider at first and it was a nightmare, but she was too young to even be interested anyways. Thats just the way our family is and I love it.
So if you are contemplating whether or not your kiddo needs a tablet, trust your gut. I have toyed with the idea of getting my kids kindles, especially now that they are $50, but I keep changing my mind. I even went to Best Buy last month, before we went to the Ocean, and looked at the kindles and then I literally said to myself "RUN AWAY! You don't need this, they don't need this". And I walked out of the store. lol
We have an iPad. It is five years old. It has a shattered screen but we still use it for music. Once upon a time we used to let Jaymeson play games on it. But once the screen shattered, about two years ago, we stopped letting the kids use it. I am always tempted to replace it, but haven't.
We aren't perfect and definitely wouldn't call us "crunchy" but maybe a little more old school. We expect our kids to play hard outside every day and to get dirty.
If you are struggling with the technology overload and don't even know where to start, make a plan. Remember that the first few days of that new plan might be rough. But I would say about day four you will see it get easier. You could also pick certain days of the week where they can watch a show, or days they can't. You have the reigns in this and can steer any direction you want.
Well, since my kiddos and nanny kid are napping away, time to get more stuff done. Thanks for reading.
Happy Friday and Mother's Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment