...in a child’s virtual world
“Cassie. You’ve been on that computer long enough. Shut it down and practice your piano lesson!”
“Aw Mom,” she whines, “I just got started, and besides, Roby didn’t finish until a few minutes ago.”
Thus, a new round of media conflict is born and Mom, bless her heart, is at a loss to know what to do.
It’s a stress that almost every modern family experiences, thanks to motion pictures and their offspring, TV and computer-based entertainment.
When you consider the enormous influence that electronic visual media exerts on families, it’s easy to understand the frustration of parents who have higher values in mind for their children.
A preschool mother quipped, “It seems that my children are hypnotized by visual media ... as if they can’t think of anything beyond the moment.”
Consider this: would you invite a total stranger who was simply funny or playful or dramatic to come in and care for your kids, hours on end, without your knowing what was happening? Probably not.
However, when you allow your children to watch TV alone or play video games (normally using violence or radical behavior) you are doing just that.
Many of the values portrayed would never pass your conscious test, but you are allowing it by default. Then, when those inferior values meet your values, there is inevitable conflict!
So, how do you organize so that visual media stops dominating your home and, instead, supports your family’s development?
- First, make the default (normal) state of your TVs and computers to be ‘OFF’ instead of ‘ON’; i.e., use them only for specific programs or events, and NEVER to pass time or keep the kids occupied.
- Next, make the use of TVs & computers a privilege (not a right), based on the ideas in the next bullet.
- The use of entertainment media needs to be either by specific permission or fit within specific guidelines that you set up or work out with the kids.
- Because schedules change frequently, set up daily coordination sessions to fine-tune the use of electronic entertainment media that day.
Sound like a lot of work? Maybe. But it’s far less complicated than the alternative! And, you’ll end up with your electronics serving, instead of controlling you.
