Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Why I Hate Electronics...

Solon had his I Phone with him when he came over this weekend.  Within minutes of seeing it and watching it work William was obsessed with it.  Alessandra already is. I hate seeing kids hooked on a screen.  I realize that in the years to come my kids may hate me when I say no to all these gadgets and video games, but I hate to see them staring at a screen when they could be reading, having fun outside, or doing something fun like cooking or art.  I want them to develop a love for living an ACTUAL life, not a virtual one.  We have one TV, one computer, and a flip phone.  I love that our evenings are spent together playing, reading, and going on walks.  I hope when they grow older, my kids will understand why I was so adamant about keeping these flashing lights out of the house...and I hope they don't end up eternally obsessed with the damn things because I kept them away from it!

2 comments:

Ms. Leigh said...

I agree, but my husband loves his technology. And my sister has been showing Booker her Iphone since day 1, however, that being said, I have been adamant about really watching the clock on all things electronic. TV is only a morning ritual, because I am not a morning person, and our I pad is maybe a 2 time a week thing and we only let him do games that help teach him something. Like a color matching game or a flip the card to match stuff. But not anything junky our pure entertainment based. The good thing is, because we don't allow it every time he asks, he doesn't ask. And if he doesn't ask it doesn't ever happen. So he might see his dad use the I pad here are there, (we hide it a lot, for the whole out of sight out of mind technique) and he will ask, but sometimes the answer is no. And he might throw a fit but he gets over it and moves on to something better.
I am in the same thought as you but it's hard when your other half isn't. My husband is a gamer big time. But he also does every kind of puzzle book as well. Booker often will sit down with him doing crosswords or whatever and pick out letters. So luckily we let him do that as much as he wants.

But no phones for this kid until he is old enough to have a job.

Kelly said...

It's tough to find a balance, but it sounds like you guys are doing a good job of it. Will's personality is too close to mine, he gets obsessed with something easily, and I feel like I have to curb that fast! I bought him a learning game for the DS that we have and he is always begging for it, even after not seeing it for weeks. Then, when you let him play he freaks when you tell him to stop and then begs for it for hours. Very weird and annoying...he does watch DVD's though, but I try and limit it to one hour in the am and one in the pm, when I am cooking dinner. I try not to let him watch TV because of the ads, unless it's PBS.