The other day as the kids were cleaning up after playing with their toys, they started getting distracted. I noticed the toys were clearly not going to go back in their bin (at least not within the next hour or so). I immediately defaulted to the, “if we do not finish up picking the toys we will not get to watch any TV after this.” In a flash of lightning, the place was all picked up. Every single crayon was back in the craft box. The motive: watching their favorite shows. I later begun to tease apart the lingering feeling of why was a feeling a certain way towards using TV as the medium of exchange for getting stuff done. A few weeks prior at the playground I overhead a mum tell her middle aged boys as well, “the longer we stay here the shorter screentime we will have once we get home.” I knew what was making me uneasy:
“Myself and maybe other humans living in this information age have put devices and screens on a platform they are unworthy of. “
Watching Olympians receive their medals on the podiums, one cannot be awed by how they deserve the spot. They have earned every right to get the gold, silver or bronze. But screens and devices? not quite. not at all. So since this cleaning toys event with the kids, I decided I will no longer be using TV or shows as a dangling carrot in conversation around clean up, exiting the playground or getting off or on the school bus. Our kids are more worthy and more deserving. Device and screen use should come in play purely for the purpose they were meant for – entertainment and education. Not to be rewarded or taken away if a child does a “good” or “bad” thing. A child should do the right thing because it is simply that – the right thing. Let them set the table because we set the table around here and take out the trash – not to earn an extra hour on the device. Instead let it just be that – an extra hour no strings attached because it is entertaining. This “extra hour” may call for a change in routine if it is eating into other things like bedtime and becoming a habit – either way let us stop putting devices on podiums they are unworthy of.
“Kids are not dogs to be trained they are humans to be loved.” – Anonymous