New Dog. Old Tricks.
No you didn’t read incorrectly. And no, the new dog here is not you (yours truly LOVES dogs so it would have been an honorable term of endearment). The ‘new dog’ here is parenting in our digital world. Adulting is hard and parenting has always been adulting on steroids. But past generations of parents didn’t have to contend with say, toddlers being addicted to phones! That is definitely a ‘new dog’.
We do hard things – at least some of the time
There are many things that are hard to do that we do anyways. Decluttering a home, learning how to play an instrument, losing weight, gaining weight, writing a weekly blog…
Whoever came up with the saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks lied. They were probably just a bad trainer and came up with a catchy adage to shift blame.
You most definitely can teach an old dog new tricks – it’s just harder to do.
With the right strategies, we can, and do, do hard things.
This week, we have some practical tips to help you do a very hard thing. How to make kids screen time productive – aka fun and engaging but at the same time educational.
‘Fun and engaging’ is easy for kids to get online. ‘Fun, engaging and educational’ is much harder. To use a food metaphor, the internet is filled with oceans of sugary drinks which of course kids desire – afterall, we’re evolved to find sweet things pleasurable. Fun, engaging and educational teeny pools of refreshing ice-cold water or tiny streams of rich creamy milk amidst the oceans of the stuff kids like but isn’t really good for them.
Ok, so the food metaphor may be spent. The point is, it’s easy for kids to end up consuming the widely available mindless content that they like, rather than the productive content which requires deliberate work to put in front of them.
Anyone who has little ones in their lives will tell you that once they are exposed to those sugary drinks, it is so hard to change course. But it is never too late. The same tips we use to do other hard things can help you do this hard thing. Here are three tips.
Pace yourself
You’ve probably heard the saying that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” – it takes time to do great things. If you reflect on the gift that productive screen time is to your child, you may appreciate that the comparison to creating the greatness of Rome is quite fair. And if you’ve ever had to steer a child who is accustomed to watching whatever they want to more healthful choices, you also know that the task is as complicated as creating Rome.
It is going to take time and so don’t get discouraged. You cannot eliminate the ‘sugary drinks’ content in one fell swoop (or ever fully in honesty). But you definitely can increase the share of productive content if you keep at it.
Focus on one thing at a time
There’s nothing like checking off a to do to give you more vim to keep going. So break up the task ahead into smaller bits. Specifically, make a mental note of the thing that bothers you most about your child and digital and tackle them one by one.
I don’t feel good about what my child does online – e.g. ‘Harmless’ but mindless content that they love.
I don’t feel good about when my child is online – e.g. Tablet when they are eating
I don’t feel good about how much time my child is online – seemingly all their free time
There can be a slew of other things relevant to you and your home. Start with the most bothersome and tackle the things in turn rather than all at once.
Have a plan to fill the vacuum you’ll create
The less than productive screen time was serving a purpose. It may not have made you feel good but you must face the fact that you’ve taken something away from the child. Be prepared to replace that content with productive content or other activities.
Let technology help you. Aneta was literally created to help make kids screen time more productive without burdening the grown ups. It lets kids get to specific websites and apps in the order and at the times that you want for them – all on their own. Plus Anetapacks bring you ‘playlists’ of productive screen time so you don’t need to know what to put in front of them yourself.
These simple strategies might as well be as old as time. But they have been helpful to get other hard things done. Why not try them?
