Every parent can agree that it can be extremely difficult to raise well-balanced, healthy, and happy children. This has been the case all along, but in the digital age, there are even more hurdles that parents have to overcome. One of these is something that has actually rocked many a marriage, and this is trying to get your children off the myriad of screens they can access at any given time. If you’re worried about your child becoming an ‘iPad kid,’ read on to see some helpful tips that can show you how to nip this problem in the bud.
Bond With Your Children
One important way to try and curb your child’s growing screen addiction is to find fun and creative ways to bond with them. Most of the time, children will turn to the internet in an effort to keep themselves busy and entertained, and this is something that children have needed to do since the start of time. Think about various ways in which your parents or even grandparents may have bonded with you when you were little, and you’ll get the ball rolling.
From baking tasty sugar cookies to picking wild berries, there are so many possibilities that you’re sure to find something that your child will be interested in. Keep things lighthearted for the best outcome, knowing that you can always share somber facts at a different time. One such fact is that an estimation made by the National Safety Council or NSC is that at least one driver in more than 40% of all accidents resulting in injury or fatality was actually using a cell phone.
Take a Break From Your Screens as a Family
Make it easier for your child to turn their device off by doing it as a family. While life may be very busy, with work and social obligations all vying for attention, you should be able to step back from it all for a while. This may take proper planning to manage, but it will be well worth it, and you can set a ‘digital vacation week’ or any period in which no one interacts with screens unless absolutely necessary. As a result, you may discover a lot of fun things to do and enjoy each other’s company, something that can strengthen both your family and your marriage simultaneously. During this break, you can play board games and trivia, discovering interesting facts such as data shared by commercial businesses interviewed for the Workforce Strategy showing farm hand2 and management represent 49% and 18% of the aquaculture workforce in Maine, respectively.
Avail Fun, Off-Screen Activities
Finally, do your best to make it easier for your child to stay off the screen by availing of fun, off-screen activities. These should be based on interests that your child may have so that they can easily dedicate their attention to them. For example, if your child loves science, you can enroll them in a camp or other center where they’ll have the opportunity to not just learn and interact with like-minded peers. They’ll also be able to perform interesting experiments and may be asked to submit practicals or other projects. Help them with these if you can, so that they see the value of what they’re involved in. Your input could even be as simple as pointing out to them facts such as that electricity travels at an impressive 6,696,000 miles per hour.
Remember that you’re going to need patience to get through this successfully and allow both your child and yourself some grace. This means that even if you get some things wrong at the beginning, you can always try to do better moving forward. As a result, you may be able to finally pry your child off the screen without a tussle or a frown, helping them grow up with more fulfilling experiences.
