There are days I could honestly throw our TV, PlayStation, IPads and phones into the lake that's 1/2 a mile from our house. There are days I have a very real guilt for the amount of time I spend on my phone and the amount of time I allow my boys to spend in front of a screen. It's a difficult struggle to balance active play, active family time with screen time.
I find it much easier to park in front of a TV than to plan active family time or non-screen activities, especially, when there are 4 of us with different ideas of what is "fun".
I'm a convinced believer that TV has helped contribute to the breakdown of the family. Well, not the TV itself but the influences TV/media has had on the family. And now, in my lifetime, I can add Smartphone, computer and social media technology to the list of modern influences to the contributing factors.
I'm very well aware that these facets in and of themselves aren't the enemy but we easily and conveniently choose them to entertain us to the point they separate us instead of bringing us together. And in the worst cases, causing heartache and harm to the family.
I wish I had some testimony of how I am able to convince myself and my family to spend less time looking at a screen. But truth is, I don't. I go through sporadic interventions with our boys of cutting back but then we seem to fall back to the old convenient entertainment of screens.
I can attest, though, that my boys exhibit much better behavior and attitudes when they have been detoxed from video games and TV.
Parenting...it's hard and screen/media certainly adds to the pressures and vigilance of trying to do it rightly.
^^^^The above link is an article from Forbes "The Truth About Parenting in a World Full of Screens
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