“Is his belly button supposed to bleed like that after the cord comes off?”
“I don’t know. Let me Google it.”
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“When does Skylanders Swap Force come out, Dad?”
“Let’s look it up.”
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“Can you please give her something to keep her still until the chips get to the table?”
“Hand her my tablet.”
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Oh, modern parenting, how we love you.
When I think about how my parents managed without microwaves (for most of my youth), and DVRs, and DVD players for the car, I weep for them. God knew what he was doing, putting me on this earth at just the right time to have my first baby when the smartphone hit the masses.
Though, I actually didn’t have a smartphone when Kendall was a baby. Our breastfeeding relationship was like something out of the pioneer days. I had to watch infomercials with the volume off while up with him at 3am.
::shudder::
We are a tech loving family, it’s true. We have incorporated it into our lives fully, including our newest addition- the Samsung Galaxy Note tablet. Scott uses it all the time and goes everywhere with this now, which means he’s always got it when the tiny people start to get restless. Don’t get me wrong, we try not to be those parents who are always shoving devices in front of our kids in exchange for silence.
Unless we are out to eat… or it’s been a really long day… or we are in need of a bribe.
With the good- like the sweet silence of children watching a movie on a roadtrip- comes the bad- like the ability to ask Google about any bump I find or twitch I feel in my body and have the first result come back with “blah blah blah CANCER.”
While I think we have it a lot better than our parents in many ways with all this technology literally at our fingertips, I also think we deal with more stress than they did simply from being overwhelmed by access to too much information.
Some days I have to step away from social media because I can’t handle seeing anymore “cautionary tales” of things that can go wrong and diseases my kids can get pop up in my feeds.
Other days… most days, though, I’m grateful for how technology lets me connect with so many people. I’m grateful that I can always reach out and crowd source, or just know that someone is there to commiserate. I’m grateful to have this virtual water cooler as a work at home parent.
No doubt, technology has changed how people parent. For better or for worse? What do you think? How has it affected you?
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6 Comments
I go back and forth…I know sometimes I struggle with putting my phone down and being “present.” It’s an addiction for sure.
I’ve received a life-long ban from WebMD, so now I can’t self-diagnose like I used to. 🙂 I’m not a parent, but I still sometimes think we spend too much time in technology and not enough time out in the world/spending time with others, and that makes me sad to think about.
Check out “I Forgot My Phone” on YouTube. Funny, but really kind of sad.
I am addicted to Candy Crush and need. to. stop. My 5 year old had a straight up iPad addiction, which we’ve turned into a positive. He used to scream when it was time to stop playing and it was hard to regulate how much he did play. He now only plays when he earns it. He has a daily chart (“Flushed every time,” “Stayed with Mom in Public,” etc.) and for every sticker he earns he gets one minute of time at the end of the day…up to 20. He knows when his time is up and he’s stopped asking for it at other times of the day. Best of all, it’s a reward he wants that costs me nothing. Yea!
I didn’t have a smartphone either when my first was born…I did the same up-all-night-with-infomercials and re-runs of Three’s Company and Two and a Half Men because we only had a few free TV channels…AAGGHH. Awful, compared to the newborn phase with my daughter (which included a smartphone).
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