Snatching Back My Family from Technology

Take a minute and reflect on your family, are they close like you were with your family when growing up or are they close to their technological gadgets? Do your children enjoy when you are around or does it feel like it is the same when you are away or at home to them because of their technology? These are some of the questions that disturbed me when I looked at my 4 year old daughter. She was addicted to her mobile/tab that we could not spend family time together. Even during meals she had to watch YouTube and this was totally different from how I was raised because meal time was family time. I did not want to stop her though I knew it was wrong, my daughter will grow up being more socialized with the technology than me.

Although, we have to move with the pace at which the society is moving but there are some things that should not change like the bond between a family. Technology has its advantages but it has a major impact on the upbringing of the future generation and family as an institution. I used to see my daughter rotate from watching TV to watching clips on YouTube to playing games on electronic devices. This troubled me a lot because I knew the implications it will have on her and I was determined to change the situation.

Negative Impacts of Technology to Your Child

· It kills creativity- What happened to the good old days when we could enjoy life and play games with the absence of tech products. Writing is an art and form of creativity but its being killed slowly with texts, chatting and all the social media platforms that do not care about any grammatical rules. The boredom that used to make us creative has been taken away by tech. Most parents will hate to hear their children saying “am bored” but it is this boredom that used to make us creative and imaginative.

· Creates addiction- If my daughter did something wrong I used to take her mobile/tab from her. She will be sad but also she will learn a lesson. This means that she is very depend on them that she will do anything to have them. Most of the tech products are addictive and to prove my point compare the time you spend with your child and the time they spend on their phones. Electronic games of all sorts are in the market and your child can sit on the couch from morning to evening doing nothing else but gaming.

· Creates health problems- We are raising a generation of physically unfit children because they perform very minimal physical activities. Research indicates that the increase use of gadgets in children creates a lot of health conditions such as eye sight problems, neck pains, and back pains among many others.

· Social relationships- Electronic gadgets have affected social relationships in a negative way. Children would rather chat with their friends over the social media than have physical contact or even spend some quality time with the parents. sometimes I you just want to talk to your child to know what has been happening in their lives but as you busy talking to them they are busy scrolling through their phone or wondering what time will you stop talking they continue with their game.

After a keen observation I felt as a parent I should be more interesting than the devices my daughter spends all her time on. I figured I must have better energy and be more active to entertain her so that I can get to spend quality time with her. So I took it as a challenge to snatch my daughter back from those devices. There are several things that we did to over come the technological challenges.

No Internet

My daughter used to chat with me over the social media or just text. So the first thing I did was cut off my internet connection with her. By doing this she missed talking to me and that made her wait for me so that we talk when I am back home. That made me realize that there are some things that I do that pushed my little girl more to her devices.

Yeeeyy!! It’s Play Time

It can be difficult to balance everything such as work and still get time to play with your child but trust me that time is the best thing that can happen in your relationship with your child. I always create time to play games with my daughter or take her to the park and it has worked positively for us. Not only has it driven her away from her devices to outdoor games but it has also improved our relationship. During play time we get to talk about how she is and I get t learn more about her each day.

Achieving this may not be easy but there are simple steps that you can start with like first start playing the game that your child likes. Then the following play session you can incorporate a bit of what you want and with time it will be all about outdoor fun games away from the electronic devices.

Read a Book to Her

My daughter loves Disney characters so I made a point to search for the most interesting Disney books. I used to read to her during bedtime but now it is “our thing”. We read books together sometime she is the one who reads them to me and we enjoy our time together.

You can give your child a memorable childhood and improve on your relationship by engaging yourself in their lives. First understand what your child loves to do then do it with them and if they are not desirable to you orthey are based so much on their devices your change them gradually. Am glad my daughter is out of her dependency on technology. Today we got a pet dog for and she it is making her more responsible at a young age, she does not even touch the mobile/tab.

Parents let’s save our children from the addiction and give them the best we could “a strong childhood”.