Technology Rally

Technology is a double edge sword. I love technology, learning new gadgets is fun for me. As an individual person, I enjoy figuring out how things work, but as a parent, I want to fight the monstrous force of the technology wave.

Kids should be kids, enjoying the fun play of interacting, make-believe, and experiencing real life. Television, video games, app games, Facetime, texting sucks the life out of creativity, and frankly it's just interfering with my fantasy of what a perfect childhood should be. Of course, my fantasy is exactly that, a fantasy. I'm almost sure this is how my dad felt while raising my brothers and me. I always chalked up his ramblings about the good old days as him just being sentimental. Truthfully, 90% of the time it was sentimental, but there is another 10% of him just wanting us to experience what he experienced. Our childhood experiences make us who we are later in life.

I want my children to use their imagination, be creative (drawing, writing, music, playing, performing, etc.), and function socially, essentially be well-rounded adults someday. Having three children in three years provided a built-in social structure so I believe I've exceeded the social functionality for all three of my children. They excel in their communication skills especially when they are screaming at the top of their lungs at each other over clothes, toys, markers, pencils, paper, glue, etc. It does wonders for their vocabulary levels.

Back to the technology rant, this past Christmas was an exceptional Christmas for our household (view Coming Out of the Dark Ages post back in November): new television, dvd player, and the kids received their own Ipod Touches. I held off as long as possible, but Child #1 was dying to get one because all her friends had one. I wasn't too keen on the idea, but one of my friends made an appealing argument to get them.

Long story short (too late), all three of them have an Ipod Touch. Until this past week, I didn't know how powerful these little gadgets could be. Not the technology, but the leverage they provide for a parent. Child #1 and Child #2 were grounded from their Ipods and TV for a whole week. By default, Child #3 didn't watch TV or play on her Ipod either because all three of them spent their free time the entire week playing make believe and board games. They created a daycare, library, retail store and grocery store. In the end, my fantasy of providing the perfect childhood for my children incorporated technology, but the fantasy is becoming real.   

To all those parents out there that are on the border of buying some kind of technology for their children, go ahead and make the purchase but remember to use it against them and stick to the punishments. I know it is easy to give in. DON'T. Force them to endure the punishment. It will only provide them with beneficial real life experience. Happy Parenting!