How to Supervise Time For Young Children. (Electronics, Reading, Organized Sports and Alone Play Time)

Let us get one thing right at first. We leave out school. And so you leave out work. And here we are, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Did you know that sitting around on your duff reading actually uses less calories than you sitting around on your duff being a gamer? Sitting outside in a fresh morning sunshine is healthier than lying in bed with a favorite novel. You can watch TV from ten or more feet. Reading lends itself to farsightedness. A very normal child in school may read more books in special online reading courses with an IPad. Electronic devices have music with them, books do not. Very few jobs out there nowadays for readers, but tons for electronic type engineers.

As my boy and I like to say – all that is cray cray!

So we start out discussing here without prejudice or prejudgment led by the very thing we are talking about sort of – the internet. If you swing a carpenter’s hammer or a nail gun or type for 6 hours a day chances are real good you will get tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. So figure out a better way.

If 2 hours of electronics is the maximum time for a child each day, figure out a better way. (personally I go with about half and half of two hours split between reading hard copy and electronics of any sort) Of course once a week or so you had better watch a movie together. NOTE here this is for couples also – pretty obvious eh? If you think Sponge Bob Square Pants is out there pick up the one with an underwear hero. But watch it together, don’t worry you can go in the other room and scream into a pillow during the show – but remember to tell your child not to put in on pause. Otherwise love the one your with.

I hate those blowers. They spread dust in my yard by pushing the garbage into my street. The sound is obnoxious. But they are just a tool and if used with aforethought work well. Let us embrace that as a parent. We just looked up volcanos to look specifically about metamorphous rock. We already know about them but the heat transference on previous Basalt and sedimentary rock formation was the next step. The boy asks the question and together we look up the answer – you got it, on my electronic device.

Please stay here this is important. There are children at my son’s awesome school with hard core not good parents. Not absent parents because they work so hard like our military couples, but more like crack heads. I am pushing for a program to get those kids electronic devices for reading and playing. A whole lot better than no parent. I am sorry if that is harsh and unpopular but it might be our only chance into their homes.

Now be sure that in my hood schools provide – they even provide for the parent to come eat with the child’s breakfast if needed, locally organically grown. They do not have yet a “comb your hair and straighten up your clothes” program but I will work on that. Seems to me that self-esteem is pretty much directly connected to proper pride and performance. We do not need it as 25 out of 30 in a class do not need it. But I will get those grants and funding. I am a dad, it is my job. You see a parent must take care of his children. And the best way to do that is walk out your front door and do your best so that the next generation can do the best that they can. Classmates succeeding is crucial to the growth of all children. Kind of like Marines.

I think this is the best place to address a serious issue. “Out of your 3 children which is your favorite?” Of course that is an absurd question. Unless there is an unbalance it clearly is all three differently and yet the same. This is a hard point to make. Today Bill needs this. Jane needs that. Tomorrow it will be different. Sometimes my boy needs to be told to do it himself. Other days he suffers from doubt and a feeling of the homework being to hard.

I was so beat down yesterday. But my boy cried over some arithmetic problems. Breathe deep and be a learning helper. Give it ten minutes and that “ Self- beat down” goes away. It is hard like exercising daily. But when you get out into the sun all is good.

Back to the electronics as a baseline. I have to set aside about 30 minutes a day to guard my son from influence. It might be hard but I do not watch him if he knows. His time in his head alone and facing the universe in the back yard where dreams and imagination are safe, is so important. He must process the games and the reading and the school and sort them out in a day dream place.

I hear and truly believe to an extent that meditation, quiet reading, prayer and some exercise is awesome for us. We should make that time so we can appropriately serve others. I have been doing all that stuff for years and what I can truly say is “I might be crazy but it keeps me from going insane”. So when my dogs are beat and my energy makes it all I can do to fix the boy dinner and holler to do homework. I just lay down. Oh no not in bed! On the family room floor. Quietly. And Relax. I reckon there is a beacon of sorts that lets your children know that is what you are doing. Because you have about the time needed to let them bones relax – I like chillax. And then the boogerheads are on you like white on rice. And if you do not get a boost and a way healthy shovel full of love you need to see a doctor like yesterday. Don’t send your kids send yourself.

Life sucks. And it can suck the love out of you. But if you have spouse or child just imagine. The good that gets pumped into by children. My wife always joins in on the floor play (yes that is meant to be funny) Yoga with her on my back it is amazing fun and my son laughs just too hard. They should include wild bull riding into yoga poses.

And then off he goes for a bit of tablet. Mom and dad are busy for the next hour. But we drop in and say “what” a few times in the 20 minutes. He uses “his words” to relate and mom and dad are happy for the free babysitter as dishes and laundry are done and usually just a tad of tender moments.

Then the thing is off. And blank paper and all kinds of coloring colors, pencils and markers and pens release again what must process subliminally along but the art goes into our souls and is prominently displayed. To Share?

Let us wrap up with two thoughts. If you hit the mark here two days a week you are awesome. Trying to be the best parent you can be, I promise you is good enough. My life is different, I am a workaholic and my work is my children.

And let us not forget not to give our daughter a hammer and saw and let them loose in the back yard. Do not give them electronics and set them free without supervision. I am old and I remember getting my first knife for whittling and grandpa watched like a hawk. Same deal with these electronics. And then do not worry, your attention is far more valuable to a child than worry over electronic games.