Parenting kids in the age of the internet
October 27th, 2008 / 3 Comments
I just received a couple of great comments from Joey, a mature 14-year-old with some great insights on parenting. You can see his comments on my post on “Get your kids off the computer without nagging” and “Video game addiction.”
Joey’s comments are a great lead into my post today.
I was interviewed by Aurelia Williams on the topic of “Parenting kids in the age of the internet.” I address the issues that Joey raised about how parents need to understand why kids are on the computer so much. Click here to go to the podcast.
There is much more that has to be said on this topic. I recently did a seminar for 1 1/2 hours on this topic and we barely scratched the surface.
I am currently writing a book about this issue, and will let you know when it’s ready.
In the meantime, read some of my previous posts under the category of Kids and Computers, and I’ll be posting more about this later on as well.
Comments
JY; Why don’t you tell your parents about this site? Being a parent and know how to raise kids right is not easy, in fact, it’s downright hard! Perhaps if your parents will read some of this, it’ll help them. If they are decent people, I think they’ll appreciate the feedback.
BTW, I don’t pay my kids to do things, not for the reasons you mentioned. Read my post here and tell me what you think: http://www.adventuresinparenting.org/2007/10/24/not-a-convenient-babysitter/
There is a good reason why you can write a book on the subject.
As a parent, I don’t claim to have all the answers but I have become more painfully aware of risk in general. We pay insurance, wear seat belts, care about side air bags, check out strangers in the neighborhood, want you to wear a helmet when on your bike, get nervous when you’re are out of sight etc. There’s good reason for all of these things and are justifiably uptight (to a degree).
That said, I make it a point to never forget what it feels like to be a kid. I believe offering measured degrees of freedom and respect breeds responsibility. I know a lot of the lessons I leaned growing up were the hard way and being “taught” the lesson through other means would not have been as meaningful. This is probably going to be the hardest part for me…seeing my son make mistakes that I can anticipate.
I could go on and on but this is such a healthy discussion I would love to see more perspectives.
Rick: Yes, there is a difference between protection and protectiveness.
I think when the child is in a secure home, he can make normal childhood mistakes and has the support of the family to recover and even grow from the mistake.
But if the child grows up in a home with constant stress on him, and he acts out in dysfunctional ways, those are the things that we need to guard against.
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