Cell Phones, Texting and Parenting Make Bad Mixers - We agonize, with good reason, over the dangers of cell phone use, texting and driving. Texting (sending and receiving SMS messages) while driving is a Molotov Cocktail looking for a place to explode. There's another dangerous brew too: parenting while texting.
Child care, like driving, requires all of a parent's attention and then some. Infant, toddler, preschooler (and sometimes teenager) care typically requires divine intervention. It's the Eighth Wonder of the World that some kids survive childhood, even with the most vigilant parenting.
Our youngest son was a walking incendiary bomb. He never played with toys. He loved knives, power tools, electrical sockets poisonous chemicals, open fire and danger. His favorite colors were gun metal gray and olive drab. The words "don't touch, that's dangerous" meant "immediately inspect" to Jake. Other people child-proofed their houses; we Jake-proofed ours. He is the nosiest, most insatiably curious child who ever lived.
Cell phones weren't around when my kids were young, so maybe I just don't understand. Maybe I'm functionally challenged. I had enough trouble keeping my children relatively safe, healthy and happy without constant digital interruption. Parenting took every ounce of concentration I had.
Since 2008, the texting craze has been mushrooming. Parents whose attention is always divided between children and text messages are asking for disaster. How can a mom whose face and fingers are glued to a 3x6 inch screen possibly tend her children? There's a reason they call child care "looking after children"; you have to look at them.
I've seen the text addicts everywhere. Kids running wild, wandering off, not playing safely, fighting, bullying other kids, crying, asking for things and being ignored or just wanting dad to watch how high she can swing. And where's dad? Yakking on his mobile or thumbing out some message.
If parents use their phones for business, great. If they don't try to text and watch small children, great. Unfortunately, texting can also be addictive. With unlimited texting plans, half of teens users send 50 to 100 text messages. 72 percent of adults (18 and over) text. 25 percent send as many as 50 text messages daily. 10 percent send 50-200 messages daily and 4 percent send more than 200 messages daily.
I have a difficult time believing that all of them are of vital interest. Most conversations probably go something like this: "what RU doin," "LOL," "nothing" and "BRB." Important stuff. Or sending constant Facebook updates: "Going to store," "I'm at the park." Like anyone reads all those trivial updates or cares that you went to Walmart? Whose life is that interesting that they have to broadcast everything?
Digital communication is great. I'm all for progress. Woo hoo. However, I wonder if being digitally connected 24-7-365, is healthy, though? I like my privacy. I like my sanity. I need not be be "on call' constantly. I need down time. Constant texting would make me feel vulnerable. It would also increase my dyslexia and Attention-Deficit Disorder to schizophrenic proportions.
According to RMIT University of Melborne researcher Jennie Carroll, I'm not alone. Carroll studied chronic texting and found that there is a condition called "textaphrenia" (hearing imaginary text messages). She also lists anxiety, depression, insecurity and low self-esteem as manifestations of texting addicts.
So, parents, use your cell phones, but text sparingly. Frequent texting is a dangerous distraction. At best, continual it wastes time and zaps energy. At worst, constant texting is a form of child neglect and abandonment. ( news.yahoo.com )
Child care, like driving, requires all of a parent's attention and then some. Infant, toddler, preschooler (and sometimes teenager) care typically requires divine intervention. It's the Eighth Wonder of the World that some kids survive childhood, even with the most vigilant parenting.
Our youngest son was a walking incendiary bomb. He never played with toys. He loved knives, power tools, electrical sockets poisonous chemicals, open fire and danger. His favorite colors were gun metal gray and olive drab. The words "don't touch, that's dangerous" meant "immediately inspect" to Jake. Other people child-proofed their houses; we Jake-proofed ours. He is the nosiest, most insatiably curious child who ever lived.
Cell phones weren't around when my kids were young, so maybe I just don't understand. Maybe I'm functionally challenged. I had enough trouble keeping my children relatively safe, healthy and happy without constant digital interruption. Parenting took every ounce of concentration I had.
Since 2008, the texting craze has been mushrooming. Parents whose attention is always divided between children and text messages are asking for disaster. How can a mom whose face and fingers are glued to a 3x6 inch screen possibly tend her children? There's a reason they call child care "looking after children"; you have to look at them.
I've seen the text addicts everywhere. Kids running wild, wandering off, not playing safely, fighting, bullying other kids, crying, asking for things and being ignored or just wanting dad to watch how high she can swing. And where's dad? Yakking on his mobile or thumbing out some message.
If parents use their phones for business, great. If they don't try to text and watch small children, great. Unfortunately, texting can also be addictive. With unlimited texting plans, half of teens users send 50 to 100 text messages. 72 percent of adults (18 and over) text. 25 percent send as many as 50 text messages daily. 10 percent send 50-200 messages daily and 4 percent send more than 200 messages daily.
I have a difficult time believing that all of them are of vital interest. Most conversations probably go something like this: "what RU doin," "LOL," "nothing" and "BRB." Important stuff. Or sending constant Facebook updates: "Going to store," "I'm at the park." Like anyone reads all those trivial updates or cares that you went to Walmart? Whose life is that interesting that they have to broadcast everything?
Digital communication is great. I'm all for progress. Woo hoo. However, I wonder if being digitally connected 24-7-365, is healthy, though? I like my privacy. I like my sanity. I need not be be "on call' constantly. I need down time. Constant texting would make me feel vulnerable. It would also increase my dyslexia and Attention-Deficit Disorder to schizophrenic proportions.
According to RMIT University of Melborne researcher Jennie Carroll, I'm not alone. Carroll studied chronic texting and found that there is a condition called "textaphrenia" (hearing imaginary text messages). She also lists anxiety, depression, insecurity and low self-esteem as manifestations of texting addicts.
So, parents, use your cell phones, but text sparingly. Frequent texting is a dangerous distraction. At best, continual it wastes time and zaps energy. At worst, constant texting is a form of child neglect and abandonment. ( news.yahoo.com )
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