Your answer has to be yes. The papers this morning read about how a teenage boy almost stabbed his mom for restricting access to the internet. Without a doubt our kids are consuming too much technology but so are we! We wake up with an alarm clock, we brush with an automatic toothbrush, we can’t have breakfast if the food is not warm and the milk not too cold. We use the elevator to go down, sit in cars that are remote controlled, listen to music via Bluetooth, connect with them through the day while we are at work, watch TV, choose menus and recipes through tablets, pick a restaurant with the help of a phone, Skype with grandparents instead of visiting them and watched missed episodes of our favourite sitcom over Youtube or hard drives from friends. How are we restricting our screen time?
I think the rules can’t be so different. Don’t be surprised if your kid actually turns around and rightly so to tells you mom/dad why are you asking me to get off the phone when you can’t do it yourself? So there are rules and they are meant only for the kids. You want to give the kids the Ipad when you are working, at a restaurant, heading out to meet a friend or for a meeting. Ipads and Tablets are good to keep you mum on an airplane but not when I don’t think so. That’s double standards. Just because you are the parent means nothing to the kid.
My logic is really simple if there are screen time restrictions then they need to apply to the both of you and at all times. Even if it is on Sunday morning when you can barely get up while they are up way before you because they haven’t been partying till 4 a.m. I am not fussy about screen time at all because I just believe when it’s restricted it’s desirable. My alternative to restricting screen time is giving them something exciting to do. It’s worked so far and I am hoping it will work always :).
If we really want our kids to follow screen time restrictions then let’s be fair and keep it consistent and not bend it at our convenience. We are only causing confusion in their heads as to what is right or wrong. We all use technology to teach, aid and foster learning. Without a doubt our kids play interesting games and learn their numbers, math, sight words, science experiments and really creative and logical reasoning games then how is that not part of the screen time? The easy answer I see a lot of parents using is ” I am the parent, so I can decide.” Now that’s not correct and even you know that!
Are we trying to restrict them from learning about technology in times when they are taught computers in school when they are as young as 6. Like Dr. Peter Gray said, ” Children are suffering today not from too much computer play or too much screen time. They are suffering from too much adult control over their lives and not too much freedom.” I am in complete agreement with him. Our kids have a set time table for everyday of the week and they are really like machines who need to deliver and adhere to those schedules. Wake up at this time, Eat this, get ready fast, time to go to bed, time to finish playing, time to go to home, you can’t do this, this is wrong. These are sentences you will find yourself using the most with your kids.
Ofcourse we are parents and we need to teach them the rights and wrongs but what is more important is consistency in rules and instead of focusing of how much screen time they consume we should focus on how we can monitor the content they are consuming. Not all media and screen time is bad so lets maximize the impact of the screen time vs. restricting it.
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Rohan Vyavaharkar
KSP Team
Rushita Sheth
