YES, I know, the iPad can be the devil but I need to dance with the devil to get temporary sanity
Sometimes the iPad has become a source that has helped me keep my sanity.
I’m a bad dad.
I’ve had many bad dad moments. One of my bad dad moments was allowing my kids to use the iPad just to keep them quiet. I know I’m not the only one but when you have four kids, it’s always good to have THE ONE KID to just be silent.
Too much iPad time has made our kids crazy. How so?
Not Understanding YouTube and Reality
There’s a lot of shows on YouTube but we have to understand that YouTube is not just an app, it’s a television platform.
This is hard for the adults my age to really comprehend. I’m 42 years old. I grew up on TV with bunny ears, cable TV and most recent — satellite TV.
But these kids have something extremely different: streaming TV. It’s on demand. They can watch whatever they want, when they want.
It’s crazy that a child can watch cartoons at 3 AM! When I was a kid, we had to wait til Saturday morning JUST to catch cartoons.
The more my kids watch some of these YouTube shows with real life people, they begin to think that what they’re doing is real life.
I remember when Trey was little and he went through his Evan HD phase thinking that he needed every Lego set under the sun. Evan HD was and is notorious for reviewing elaborate Lego sets and showing them off via his YouTube channel.
We later had to limit and monitor heavily Trey’s YouTube time.
When Quiet Time Goes Bad
As a parent, Quiet Time is HEAVEN. Literally nothing is better than silence in a house full of kids. Sometimes I would put the kids on the iPad because I knew it would keep them quiet just long enough for me to complete one simple task.
That’s bad I know. But sometimes I need a moment to hear my own thoughts without staring at my computer screen hoping to get something done. It’s challenging to get ANYTHING done when the kids are constantly doing one, a few or all of the actions below:
Always in my space — climbing, bumping, bouncing around, chatting, fighting, etc.
Always asking questions
Not listening when I give a basic command
They’re loud, obnoxious and love to do things that will get a reaction
Constantly messy
Leaving half eaten pieces of food.
Always bickering, fighting or making each other cry.
I could literally go on FOREVER with all of the annoying things that kids do. This is bad on my part as a parent to just give them an iPad when these things happen, I know.
But remember, SANITY overrules everything.
Now I can sit here and tell you all the things you need to do to limit iPad time. I can. And we do use some of the most common rules like limiting screen time and having the kids earn their time on the iPad.
But this article is a time for me to expose my faults and BE AUTHENTIC with you. Being AUTHENTIC is about showing the good, the bad and the ugly parts of your life to help others to not feel alone in their struggles.
So if you’re one of those parents that’s having a hard time with screen time with your kids and you’re battling with keeping your sanity, this article is to show you that you’re not alone! Things will change and get better.
JUST. KEEP. GOING.
Stay positive,
Fred
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