There are days where my kids are just total train wrecks and when I think about what they did that day I realize they didn’t do anything but sit and play on their iPad or Nintendo. I look at their little faces and realize they are just completely exhausted.
I find myself complaining fairly often that I’m exhausted and when I look back on my day I’m like why am I so tired I didn’t anything overly physical. Sure I worked my full day was in and our of meetings but the truth is that I sent that whole time staring at screens. Most days I finish and don’t even know what day of the week it is.
The terrible part is these days you have to make a conscious effort to get away from electronics. Our phones are mini computers. I take a day off of work and I still find myself working because the messages come to my phone and when I see nobody is answering or helping I am always willing to jump in and try to help out.
This wasn’t an issue when I was a kid because we didn’t have anything but a phone on the wall and maybe a gaming system that hooked to the TV and we didn’t own a computer until I was in my early teens. We played outside, rode bikes to the neighbors, played in the mud, had pickup games of baseball in the yard. Sure we got tired but it was a different kind of tired.
As of late I have found myself telling my boys that I want them to live more in the real world then the made up world that exists inside their devices. That being said I can’t figure out where to draw that fine line. Do I simply say “Ok you can only have them in the car or at your dad’s if he permits you to have them?” Do I reduce their time limits on both devices? They have officially hit the age where all their friends are also playing and they don’t want to be left out.
