Tuesday 28 May 2019

Raising our children in the new age



My best friend and I more often than not get together once a week for a glass or two of wine and a catch up, we jokingly and lovingly term these wine dates our therapy sessions, citing that they are not only cheaper but filled with as many tears (good ones) as there are laughs but in any case this past weekend we ended up reminiscing about the good and bad of our childhoods and teen hoods.
We recounted so many fond memories and then remarked about how so much has changed for our children today.

Now I am first to admit my kids are way more reliant on technology than I would like them to be, my kids love to run and play but technology- gaming and alike are their go to’s and if I need them to get something done the quickest way to do this is to threaten their access to their technology, this can sometimes backfire with a full on meltdown but most of the time it does the job and if I am busy and need just a short time of quiet or uninterrupted time I can allow them access to a game and voile problem solved.

It is a curse as much as it can be a blessing, our kids are open and have access to way more information- bad as much as good than we did, the access is often instant and made easy, no more slopping to the library for project information, if they need something it is so incredibly easy to find it on the internet the flip side of the coin of course is laziness instant gratification and access to information or becoming the target of unwanted or unsolicited predatory influence and people.

When I was a child admittedly child safety was not what it is today but in most cases it didn’t need to be, we ran outside at first light and returned at sunset, tv time was an absolute treat, every Sunday and the early mornings even a portion of the afternoon was allocated time for children’s programming in and around that unless you put something on you were out and about, life just seemed so much simpler then and now it just seems muddled and complicated- all you want to do is keep your children safe and allow them to be kids for as long as possible and in many ways innocent for as long as possible but with technology today and safety being what it is today I am left to wonder if that is even possible or am I just a bad parent for allowing my children access to the technology in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong we got into and up to a lot of crap when I was younger, we took a lot of risks and pushed sooooooooooooo many boundaries and I am not saying we were not in any danger or didn’t have access to things that generations before us did not which made even our childhoods more risky, different or difficult to deal with as a parent but sjoe guys it’s a dammed if you do and damned if you don’t scenario.

In light of this I decided on Sunday that we needed some family time no tech aside from a movie, I even took a puzzle down and put my own phone away- the eagerness to complete the puzzle lasted all but 5 minutes with the interest for the movie and family cuddles lasting significantly longer but the whining and winging oh my stars my poor ears were bleeding in the end we did manage to get through it for the most part until the late afternoon and I really enjoyed just being at home in my pjs with my family.

We cannot raise our children as our parents raised us in the way that the world that our children are living in is simply not the one in which we were born into, we can teach them the fundamental principles and values that we were brought up with but the rest we be flying into the wind without a helmet on and hoping for the best which I have to be honest has and continues to scare the core out of me.

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