Is a smart phone, iPad or video game raising your child or grandchild?
In a post of mine from 9 days ago, I talked about the state of some public school classrooms in my city and how the atmosphere and behavior of more children has deteriorated.
I described my experiences as a substitute teacher and how it has changed in the last 16 years. Please read that post here if you are interested.
The behavior of some of these children is rather alarming and I believe it needs attention from parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles anyone raising children.
In my opinion there are some changes that need to be made to how families are raising their children. I've listed my suggestions for how to remedy the situation.
I believe these children are lacking the following:
1) Proper attention from parents - please don't let your baby use your car keys or your smart phone as a teether! Please don't hand your toddler your smart phone or an iPad to play a game on or watch a video when you are in a restaurant, the grocery store, the car, church, etc. Talk to your baby from the 1st day he or she is born. Make eye contact. Talk to them about what you are doing at the grocery store. Talk about the items you are buying. Talk to them when you are driving down the street about where you are going or other important things. Read them books as soon as they are born. Give them a love for reading early. Teach them their letters, numbers, how to spell their name before they get to Kindergarten. (age 5 in the United States) Play board games and chess with them. Let them help you clean up their toys as soon as they can. Teach them to make their bed. Let them cook with you and let them help you plant something. Teach them how to fix something. Run around and play with them, take them swimming or snow skiing, or go bicycle riding with them or roller skating or take them bowling! Take them on a hike.
2) Good Nutrition consisting of meat proteins and high quality vegetables. No fast food if possible! They need to drink good quality water and they don't need to drink sodas or juice!
3) Sleep - Most school age children 12 years and younger still need 10 hours of sleep.
4) Spiritual Guidance In The Home - Guide your child/teach them at home!
5) Quality children tv shows and movies - please don't let them watch tv shows, movies that are inappropriate for their age. They don't need fast paced children's videos that are loud and flashy playing 6-8 hours a day as babies and toddlers. These don't help them build long attention spans. They don't need hours of playing video games. They need to play board games, run around and play outside with their peers and families, learn to make something with their hands, learn to play a musical instrument, go hiking and explore the outdoors.
6)Time to play with toys that don't require a battery or electricity. Please turn off your tvs and put away all iPads and computer and just let your child experience the world! They need to learn how to talk to you and respect you. They need to make up games with their siblings, cousins and friends. They might still fight over something, but they will be looking at each other and figuring out how to get along with each other with a little guidance.
7) Respect for adults and their peer - Teach them to listen for instructions from their teachers and teach them to be kind to their siblings and peers before you send them to school when they turn 5 or 6 years old.
Please be involved in your child's life - Don't just think the teachers will take care of teaching your child the above necessary things. Talk to your grown child that may be raising your grandchild if you think some of these things are lacking. It will make a big difference in how the child is able to interact with the world!
I can stop being a substitute teacher in the schools, but if you are raising a child now in 2018, I beg you to look at the whole picture and how your are raising your child!
Maybe it's time you spent less time on your smart phone, iPad, videos games and computers and dedicate enough time to all of the things I feel are lacking in a lot of babies and children's lives.
I'm praying you will make a difference in some child's life today, and in turn that will make a difference in our future world!
Also as a side note, these are just my own personal thoughts from observing children in the classroom, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. In addition, I have some young nieces and nephews, 1- 5 years old, in which I have observed how their parents are raising them.
My two kids who are now 27 and 24.
Have a Blessed Day!
March 4, 2018
Note - tomorrow I'll be back to posting flower photos!
I’m sorry I’m so late to this, dear @violetmed, and must say that I fully agree with what you say!
Lack of attention and warm human care is leaving children vulnerable to the dangerous/ruinous care of machines.
I regret to say that over the past 3 weeks or so, I’ve been experiencing a fairly persistent migraine. A couple of days ago, I spent 12 hours in ER getting a catscan & doing bloodwork.
Just yesterday, I went to get my eyes checked.
I’m convinced my body is trying to tell me something & that this has the do with the unhealthy way we live, now, glued to screens (computer, television, phone).
Sleep disturbance and lack of spiritual guidance, as you rightly point out, are contributing factors.
Thank you, for sharing your valuable observations and experience. I do hope this might serve as a wake up call for some. I, for one, am trying to scale back my computer time and be more present.
Bless you,🌸
Yahia
I’m so sorry to hear you haven’t felt well!! Make some changes and take of care of your health. Blessings to you!
I'm feeling better and trying to take it easy/easier with Those Omnipresent Screens :) Thank you, for your concern, blessings and support, my friend. I wish you a day filled with (natural) Light & Beauty <3
I think moderation is one of the biggest keys to properly raising children.
My children do have fast food, iPad and TV time, and sometimes play with my phone in the car or grocery store. However, they spend WAY more time outdoors than staring at devices...they are out there at least 2-3 hours each day. And when it's raining or just too dang cold, I let them burn off their energy in the house. My 7 year old reads to me daily for practice, and my 4 year old and I sing his ABCs, numbers, days of the week, and months of the year together multiple times a day.
We also have movie nights or game nights where we all spend time together. And we cook 4-5 nights per week and sit down at the table as a family to eat and enjoy each other's company.
I know that isn't the case for many families these days, however, as people just don't think to make the time for what matters. We aren't perfect parents at all, but I always have my children's best interests in mind. This article is a good reminder of those interests!!
So happy to hear! It sounds like you are raising well balanced children!
This is so on point @violetmed, and a subject that needs to be highly addressed, yet I wonder if many will hear since they are so distracted on their phones, and Ipads as they juggle and maneuver through their day. Most people these days seem to always be in a rush in a hurry. And you would think that now that we have all these devices to assist us we would be able to slow down and take a break but its just the opposite. And I have seen with my own eyes in grocery stores and restaurants mothers give their children their phone to play with. If we are not mindful of the time spent interacting with these devices it can lead to an artificial programming that replaces the natural way of learning for our babies, preschoolers, and young adults.
Yes @rensoul, I’ve seen it a lot! I’ve witnessed moms and dads ignoring their children and talking or texting on their phones. In the last couple of weeks, I myself am trying to not be on my phone when I am with someone else!
Very interesting read! I'm a soon-to-be teacher and am sure I'll get to observe these phenomena, too. One thing that might be added to the list could be physical activity, but I guess it's implicitly there as it'd probably automatically come if #6 was considered.
One thing - I think - is necessary to consider though are the changing learning (and living) conditions. I don't know about the US, but here there has been a trend to compress more content into less time during the past few years. Ultimately, a lot more is expected for the kids to be done at home, and whilst some of the students are okay with that, it takes up the biggest part of the 'leisure time' for other children...
Yes, children and adults need physical activity! I mentioned hiking, swimming, bowling, etc above. Take them to a playground or a park if you don’t have a yard for them to play in. They could also just play tag or kick a ball around. Let them use their imagination on how they want to play.
Oh sorry, I must have read over that!
No problem, I appreciate you reading my post and good luck on becoming a teacher! It can be very rewarding and you will be able to guide the next generation!
This is a really good post! We don’t have kids yet, but my husband and I talk a lot about making sure our kids learn about our world from us and not their phones or tablets.
This is an interesting information, a friend @violetmed! I also believe that child should receive enough attention from their parents, first of all!
Thank you for sharing! Good day!
The world has changed so quickly!
Children are so sensitive to disturbing images!
I find that even parents in France, do not pay enough attention to the impact of multimedia in small.
It must be well framed.
Consistency and an enriching environment are so necessary for all of us and so few of us get to enjoy either.
Parenting today is probably more complex than it has ever been. Both parents may need to work. A household may be single-parented. So much information coming from every direction. Labels handed out to children at every turn. And the child may have very different ideas of how things should be and resist all sorts of well-meaning attempts to mould him. Then there is the influence of peers and other adults.
Reading your post, I wish more people took your suggested approach but I also know for some, because of a lack of resources, they just can't or wouldn't even know how. There is no easy solution for some. Things are the only way they can be. I guess in these cases compassion and patience is the only way to approach.
This is truly a big problem and we will see the results in the near future. I myself try to limit my children and myself, but find it hard a times to become unglued from the screen.
Our world is an ever changing world, it is revolving, and as it revolves so goes too on how children are rear today. With modern technologies, children become more tech savvy and less acquainted with traditional norms. If no one will try to instill the old values we had before, then in due time, we will live in a society that is far from what is being ideal. ;)