Being present with presents…WWIII Technology v. Family
Beats...Xbox...Playstation 3or4orwhatever number...iPads...iPods...iPhones...iLost my family in all this technology. How are we to create a strong family with all this electrical static?
How many times have you caught yourself yelling at your children to clean their rooms for the the tenth time and Big Brother is watching (aka the friend they have been facetiming for the last two hours) and found yourself embarassed because your hair is a mess and it is the third day for your cleaning attire?
What a dilemma...
Battling the social media of today could quite possibly become WWIII.
So what to do...Set a standard and follow it yourself. Set appropriate times for gaming and social media and don’t forget to follow these standards yourself. Children are what they live. So sorry for pointing out the obvious, but if you are like me, you do these things and wonder if they are truly working, or if your fight with your children is a battle only won during the current moment.
I suppose the proof is in the pudding. Here is a little story about an incident that happened with my son. He had been texting a girl from our old town, and they grew to like each other via iphone. A very easy, faceless way to chat. My son spent the weekend in our old town with family friends. The boys decided to ask the iphone girl and her friend to paint the town red and of course they agreed, who can turn down two dashing gentlemen such as these.
As the two couples walked the avenue, iphone girl turned into instagram girl and twitter girl and snapchat girl and every other form of social media that iteens find themselves messaging on. My son was so annoyed at her iphones dominance on their rendezvous, he stopped talking to her.
With a sigh of relief, I felt I had won a small battle in WWIII. All the nagging, confiscating and shutting down of technology gave my son an appreciation for a face to face conversation.
So keep poking and prodding... it pays off in the end.
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