A Major Parenting Mistake That We Have Been Making | Divya Toshniwal |

My childhood was spent playing in the park and creating my own games at home . I would sing , I would dance , I would make up stories out of nowhere. I spent time with my friends and I spent time with my family . My grandma would tell me stories trying to make me eat . Those stories were beautiful , all from Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Puranas. I owe all my knowledge of those ancient texts and the moral values imbibed in me to her and my stubbornness of not eating food without a story. I feel so lucky that I was born before technology took over.

It was still early but mobile phones entered my world when I was in 10th grade, but my base schema was ready by then and they did not impact me the way they impact the generation after me. 

When I see kids today they are all addicted to gadgets , they would play games , watch cartoons and even learn there chapters through videos on mobile phones. I have a nephew who is 2 years old and he would not eat if he does not have a phone in his hands watching the exact video that he wanted to watch. His parents proudly say that he is so smart to operate the mobile phone at such young age . Really??

I have a cousin who is 10 . He would play games on mobile phones and tablets like a pro. Not a single day passes by when he would not play that game . Another cousin of mine who is 13 is addicted to selfies and Snapchat . A new virus called 'Streak'( Where you upload one pic each day, on different chosen themes). Another one who is 16 never reads the chapters he would open up videos on Youtube and just watch the summaries of those chapters. 

The list is long and I can go on but I am not here to talk about the effect . I am here to talk about the cause . A 1 year old girl is crying and not eating here food. Parents are both working and they are running out of time. The solution that they find to make their child eat the food is to distract her by playing some videos in front of her so that she would eat the food quickly . The parent's time is saved . They can now get back to work.

A five year old boy wants to go to the park . The parents don't have time , they are working. they buy a Tablet for the boy and distract him with games. The boy is happy and the parent's time is saved.

And yes the children are smart , they would not stop here but pick up on any trends that is coming up . They would stay updated in the virtual world even if they have no idea whats going on in reality, because the virtual world has become their reality.

The rate of depression in adolescents has risen by 63% since 2013 .Why ?? Young girls of 12 and 13 have started having body image issues . Why?? Eye problems in teenagers have increased by 78%. Why ??Children have more negative attitude and they misbehave more often. Why??What is responsible for it? Or rather who is responsible for it? 

A child learns what he sees.We all wanted to be like our mothers or fathers. If they see you with gadgets they would follow the same and demand their gadgets. If they sees you reading a book , everyday they would accept it as conventional and start reading a book. I repeat he or she will follow what you do not what you say.

It is in our hands to design them better. A child gets distracted easily so distract them to something productive, to something creative, to something knowledgeable.

Thank You for taking out your precious time and reading my blog. If you like it please share with others too and subscribe to my blog for more such articles and to keep me motivated to write. 

Divya

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by Blogadda.

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