Responsible Parenting; Kids & gadgets

A common sight in most homes with little children today is the war over the use of mobile phones, tablets, x-box or the watching of television. It’s highly uncommon to find a child that enjoys reading and even if they do they want to read it on the Kindle. Children need to watch television or some video on youtube to eat, else they refuse to eat. They need the same use of videos etc to go to bed. Where do children pick up these habits? Aren’t we as parents responsible in making our kids slaves of the idiot box?

My son is only 8 months old and yet the moment we turn on the laptop or use our mobile phones he will drop his toys and come running. Visuals always have more of an impact on the human mind, so when we parent’s use our cell phones, laptops, and television we are in effect communicating with our child that this is good.

If you have at some point given your phone/iPad to your child in the hope that you will get a few moments of peace, you are guilty of getting your child addicted to technology. Technology in itself isn’t a bad thing, but children do not need hours upon hours of exposure to it.

While I am no expert in raising a child, here are a few things I have in mind to help my child grow without being crippled by technology.
No meals in front of any kind of media/technology. So no youtube, cell phones or television while eating.
Limited TV time. And when a time limit is set I plan on ensuring I stick to it.
Exposure to books. This one can be tricky. Not everyone enjoys reading but if my little one doesn’t I would be really sad. The world of imagination that he will miss out on is simply hard to imagine.
No cell phones at a young age. Children do not need mobile phones. Our generation did not have them and we turned out just fine.
Rather than impose these restrictions, I hope to explain and thereby make him choose to play and books over televisions and x-box.
Limit my use of mobile phone and television as well. There is no amount of explaining that will help him understand if as parents’ my husband and I are always using phones and television.
Exposure to good music, not the cheap stuff they sell as music today.

There might be more and better ways to keep children from being addicted to technology. If you know of any more, feel free to comment and let me know. All advice is good advice at this point.

As my doctor put it, “television makes children stupid” and I for one do not want to be the one that makes him stupid.