Technology Obsessed Kids

[My3cents]

My son sat on my lag at the computer when he was 2 years old and never left it. He is a 4.0 in college and just got an internship at JPL this summer. There is no getting away from the future and technology. There DOES need to be limitations and supervision. I think as long as they are using the technology for constructive purposes I'm ok with it.

I only allowed my daughter to have an iPhone at 12. She is homeschooled and it allows her to communicate with her friends. We make her aware of the threats and pitfalls of the real world and I think that makes her aware and helps in knowing that we trust her. It goes both ways.

I agree with this and I feel balance is what is needed. If you have a child that is angry after watching TV and won't transition into other things........well it is probably too much and an overload. Keeping a good balance is the key with anything- For me my daughter is an honor student, outgoing, for the most part a good child- she has her moments as all do. We trust our daughter, its the knuckleheads out there we don't trust. I like how you put it Michael, There is no getting around it.....moving forward in life is what we all strive for- just have to do it with caution.

Now I understand why your daughter has an iphone.....she prob uses it for looking information up with schooling. For me my daughter doesn't need that. She has an ipod. I don't have that type of phone. I have a penny phone. She wishes for a better phone but until she can pay for it herself, she is stuck with whatever plan we offer her and what phone we feel is right for her. Her phone is better then ours...., but not the internet and all the bells and whistles. Every family is different and whatever works for you .......great.

[jojosmommy]

My son sat on my lag at the computer when he was 2 years old and never left it. He is a 4.0 in college and just got an internship at JPL this summer. There is no getting away from the future and technology. There DOES need to be limitations and supervision. I think as long as they are using the technology for constructive purposes I'm ok with it.

I only allowed my daughter to have an iPhone at 12. She is homeschooled and it allows her to communicate with her friends. We make her aware of the threats and pitfalls of the real world and I think that makes her aware and helps in knowing that we trust her. It goes both ways.

I think the key difference between your example and my dck who can not function without something electronic telling him what to do next is parenting. You obviously took interest in WHAT and HOW MUCH technology your kids are involved in. It wasn't used as a sitter-like someone else mentioned- but a tool to move forward in life.

I like the checking the weather idea. Good way to teach a life skill and planning ahead.

[countrymom]

I think the key word is "balance" we have lots of techy stuff in our house and its all about balance. I have a dcb (he's 6) so he only comes on days off or the summer. Well he's so into his games that when they went on vacation, his chip for the ds broke, that he had a melt down for 2 hours that mom and dad almost had to come home (gma was watching them) like who does that, and when he comes, all he does is play his ds. My ds loves techy stuff but he does things with it (he makes amazing videos and he's only 9)

[countrymom]

nope, you are not nuts and you are not acting like an 80 year old.

The fact is that our children do need to know more about technology than we ever did, but that does not mean that a child under 5 needs to be spoon-fed crap from some sort of screen every waking minute.

My own kids are pretty technology obsessed, but that's balanced with lots of outdoor play time, camping, dances (my daughter), school, a school play & choir, reading, and more. Once in a while, I have to reign in the screen-time, but it also depends on the time of year. In the winter, they tend to spend more time with electronics. In the summer, they hardly touch them.

My 14 year old spends a lot of her computer time writing on blogs and "fan fiction" sites. She has a tv in her room, but hardly watches it. My 11 yo boy, on the other hand, just wants to play Minecraft..

what is fan fiction. my dd is reading stories from some "word" site, I don't know the name of it but she said the stories are really good. She is 14 also.

[Crazy8]

what is fan fiction. my dd is reading stories from some "word" site, I don't know the name of it but she said the stories are really good. She is 14 also.

no offense to you countrymom, but you NEED to know the name of the sites your DD is reading on!!!

fanfiction are stories/books made up by "fans" of a show/movie/character. For instance for all the Twilight fans there are HUGE amounts of stories made up using the characters Edward & Bella. Some are true to the "real" story - others are completely different. Many are R or even nearly X rated. This is why parent involvement/supervision is so important!!!!

www.fanfiction.net is a big one where people post stories for all different types of fanfiction!