Hellobee Boards

As someone who is in the tech industry I thing technology is great. It is a new way of interacting with the world. I also don't believe it should replace all of those other things you mentioned. My son gets his dose of time on my phone and has his own iPod touch. If we need him to be quiet for some time he gets toddler lock. But we also take him to children's museums and parks to run around and play. I just think about the different skill sets they will have when they grow up.

I personally don't believe technology is the basis for the issues you pointed out. I think it is parenting and society. Parents these days give almost immediate feedback to their precious star. They don't demand their child focus but let them do whatever they want. Their lives revolve around their child instead of their child working into the family.

I think everything is ok in moderation. I think there are pros and cons to it, and I'm honestly not sure how we'll deal with it when she's older.

Her 6 year old cousin has an ipad and left it at my mom's house after a party. Her dad called accusing someone of stealing it. Ummm.... no, the guests at my parents party aren't thieves. Maybe your 6 year old isn't responsible enough to take care of an ipad yet.

I agree with @Andrea, technology itself is not to blame but parents. We take the it is OK in moderation approach. We limit DD's TV to maybe one episode of something age appropriate on Netflix (except for when we are watching the news/baseball and she is still awake); at 27m she doesn't focus enough to even watch a 20min episode which is fine with us. Both DH and I have smartphones because of our jobs and we have a Kindle Fire, we allow DD limited access to them to play memory/matching games but are always the ones to initiate the activity (if she brings us the devise and asks we don't typically do it at that time but may later). We encourage her to play with her toys and her crayons and kitchen set more than allow technology to be the focus.

By the time my nephew was two, I remember he could log on the computer and play around with different things and watch YouTube videos. I think it's really easy for parents to just hand over their device as a way of keeping kids occupied.

I was really close to two of my professors in college and at the time their children were young, around 4 and 6. They were so smart and well-behaved. While maybe a little extreme, they didn't have a tv in the house and had an amazing garden and patio in the backyard. I think a lot of this had to do with the way they played and grew social instead of being so "plugged in."

Like pp....everything in moderation.

They were just talking about this on the radio this morning and DH and I had a discussion about this exact thing with our best friends last weekend! I agree that everything in moderation is best and that the main issue with the differences in childhood now versus childhood years ago is a change in parenting/the way that parents approach things with their children.

A huge part of me really wants to keep our children more involved in the play outside with the cousins/neighborhood kids lifestyle. I think it’s hugely important for their social skills/manners. However, I also worry that with technology being so prevalent in society today that our children will be at a disadvantage if they aren’t really plugged in early in life. Almost everything is centered around something technology-related now so not being at the same tech level as the kids who were playing on an iphone as a toddler could be an issue later on. I’m not sure how exactly we’re going to handle it honestly and it’s an intimidating decision!