Monitoring Technology Around your Children
Oh, the wonderful world of technology that has taken over many lives of children in the world (adults, I’m looking at you too). Video games, cell phones, computers, movies, etc. They’re all out there and children want them in order to keep themselves entertained, but how do you determine if your children deserve these items and then monitor them after they receive them? First of all, children should never be given anything, especially pieces of technology that can cost hundreds of dollars. These are items that are earned through hard work, showing responsibility and the ability to keep self-control when they actually get these rewards. Before you reward your child with something like a new gaming system or laptop, keep these things in mind. Before you even get to the point of giving your child something that will run so much money, you got to determine: what prerequisites will be the determining factor on if the children deserves such an item? Make sure the kids do something big to earn their reward like stellar grades, hard work around the house and other tasks that show responsibility and the ability to keep it that way. These items shouldn’t be used for bribery in order to get the child to do better; they should be used as an award to those who take the initiative on their own. Always remember in these situations that you giveth; you can taketh. If something happens were the child messes up and grades slip or they get in trouble or they aren’t keeping up with housework, take the reward away until they get back on track. It’s a privilege to have such items and if the children don’t appreciate that, they can go awhile without it until they better their situations. Even though a child earns this reward, it’s not a free opportunity to go about using it whenever and for however long they want. They need to know that as long as they have the video game system or whatever it is, that they still have to take care of their responsibilities like they did prior to earning the reward. Don’t be afraid to monitor usage and make your kids stop to do homework, take out the trash, do dishes, or simply spend some time being active in order to ensure that they are still earning that reward. Remember, monitoring also dives quite a bit for parents as well because it is up to you to make sure that your children aren’t using their new found technology in negative ways such as playing graphic or violent video games, visiting websites they shouldn’t be or using their phone too much (of course depending on what they have). For a parent, monitoring all of these things is a very important task to assure that your child doesn’t have access to certain things. Be sure they’re only seeing things that you want them to see and parental controls are one easy, helpful way to go about doing that.