Kids: tv, video games, tablets, ipods, and online activity

better safe than sorry

i am constantly working to balance out my love/hate relationship with the opportunities that modern technology affords my children. it seems like there are ten cons for every pro that i could list about (my) children having access to a variety of electronics!

even though i am dealing with two totally different age groups, as i consider this subject; the concerns are the same for both! sure, they are a little more challenging with my teenager than with my soon to be kindergartener...but still ultimately the same. at least one can never accuse me of being easier or more lenient with the other on this issue!

i will say that if it were totally up to me, my kids wouldn't have half the electronics that my husband allows them. but, i am only one of their parents and the decisions are compromised on in this house! so the least i can do is monitor,better yet, RESTRICT!

through some trial and error over the past few years with my step-son, i  have discovered that it is definitely better to be safe than sorry when it comes to all usage of technology. i'm still working it all out! just when i think i am on top of it, i find a whole new slew of things that i didn't even realize needed restricting! seriously, just when i think i've reviewed all the settings and all the apps, i find something that i hadn't noticed yet!
and the same now goes for my little man. i can't believe all the settings he has been smart enough to fool with at his age! i gotta put parent lock codes on everything. at least his messing with things is out of curiosity and wanting to play with buttons instead of purposely trying to go beyond what he is allowed (most of the time!).

but besides monitoring and restricting content, it is also hard to know what is a good amount of time to allow them to use their various devices. i can understand how easy it is, as an adult, to lose track of time and be on the computer much longer than i planned. kids would just play all day if no one stopped them!

ok, so i'm gonna have to give myself a "B-" on this one. i feel the urgency of monitoring the kids, but at the same time i feel like i could be doing better. i don't want to let electronics be my babysitter on a daily basis, ever! and i don't want to continue to feel like i'm constantly missing something i should have noticed sooner. i need to truly preview each new thing before they can play and be very specific with them about the allowed usage of time! and i don't need to be afraid to assert myself as the parent instead of feeling like the bad guy. i'd rather have my kids rolling their eyes because of my restrictions than for me to be balling my eyes out crying over a habit that is now very hard to break or, even worse, if they were to come across content that their eyes could never unsee.