{"id":199,"date":"2013-11-04T10:49:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T18:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litalane.com\/lita_wp01\/?p=199"},"modified":"2014-02-25T16:31:23","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T00:31:23","slug":"electronic-junkies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litalane.com\/lita_wp01\/electronic-junkies\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic Junkies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lita<\/a>
\nMore than ever before, our children are getting more screen time: computers, tablets, smart phones, Wii, Xbox, iPads and yes television too \u2013 how much is too much and what will the long term effects be psychologically and physically?<\/p>\n

\"Lita<\/a>Every time I pick up a newspaper, magazine or watch the news I am told by child experts everywhere that we as parents, must limit our children\u2019s time on these devices for reasons too many to name. I\u2019m not going to get into the pages and pages of reasons why The American Academy of Pediatrics say they recommend no more than two hours for an elementary age child nor will I quote the report from the Mayo Clinic that analyzes the effects of too much screen time that they find leads to obesity, irregular sleep, behavioral problems, impaired academic performance, less time for creative and active play and increase in violence\u2026whew!<\/p>\n

During the summer holidays my husband and I watched the \u201caddiction\u201d our children have to these devices and how they would go through withdrawal when the devices were removed for a period of time. We unfortunately witnessed increased aggression and mood swings when they were asked to put the devices away. Now understand, that the majority of family and friends believe our children to be well behaved, polite, articulate and caring children \u2013 and they are all of these things… when NOT under the influence of electronics. We decided desperate measures were needed.<\/p>\n

Awwww the birth of the \u201cElectronic Junkies\u201d<\/strong> Board.<\/p>\n

We explained to them that we wanted to continue to foster their independence and to encourage them, as young teens to take responsibility for their actions. Then we described a plan that we were implementing that we hoped would remove the negative interactions between parent and child that had become an everyday occurrence, regarding electronics. We clarified to them that we felt that they were old enough to manage their own time on their electronic devices; that we didn\u2019t want the anger and confrontations that we have had in the past, and that we had certain parameters we insisted they agree to, prior to putting the plan into action.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Our parameters are:<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n