The nice weather is here again, and yet my kids are indoors playing video games or surfing the Internet. How do I unplug the kids and the electronic gadgets?
As you’ve no doubt discovered by now, unplugging the gadgets is the easy part of dealing with the problem. It’s getting the kids to unplug mentally from the video game action and the online “world” that’s the real tricky part. After all, if you unplug everything electronic at your house, odds are your kids will get their electronic “fix” at a friend’s!
So does this mean that the situation is totally hopeless and you should give in to your child’s demands for unlimited playing and surfing time?
Well, no.
Even if you can’t wrestle the computer or video game genie back into the bottle, there’s plenty you can do to encourage your child to start leading a more balanced lifestyle—one that doesn’t revolve entirely around what’s happening in a virtual universe that ultimately makes a pretty poor substitute for reality. Here are a few tips.
- Get out of the house and do something fun as a family. Fly a kite. Go for a walk or a hike. Play classic kids' games like hopscotch or "Red light, green light." Drop by a local festival or fair. (Check out your local or provincial tourism bureau website if you’re not sure what's happening or when.)
- Model the unplugged lifestyle yourself. It’s hard for kids to get the message that the offline world measures up to the virtual world if they always see mom and dad lugging around a laptop or checking email via their Blackberry!
- Visit the Media Awareness Network website to find out more about kids, computers, and video games. The site does a great job of presenting both the pros and cons of computer use and video game play for kids.
