If you’re a busy parent and you’re kids are bored, would you use the strategy? Our parenting expert, Shefali Tsabary in her book, The Conscious Parent, give us both insight and solutions. Let’s hear what she has to say.
One of the easiest things to do to help our children return to their innate fluidity is to reduce the amount of television or other forms of screen time. I’m not suggesting that television or computers are bad for our children, only questioning the role they play in their everyday life.
There’s a world of difference between allowing our children to enjoy cartoons, shows, or games (especially at weekends) for leisure, and resorting to these things to distract us from being with ourselves.
If a screen is used to comfort restlessness or boredom, our children learn to be dependent on external aids to allay their anxiety.
Television and computers often serve not only as a band aid whenever children feel bored or upset, but as a replacement for relationships. Used in this way, they rob our children of the opportunity to learn how to sit with their emotions and navigate their feelings themselves.
As the child becomes buried in the noise of the program or game, its emotions are blunted. Television or the computer soon become an obsession, so that our children want them to be on at all times, in their numbness feeling strangely comforted by the presence of a screen.
Another step we can take is to exchange purchases for experiences. Instead of buying a gadget, we take our children to the zoo. Instead of buying them a fancy car on their eighteenth birthday, we send them on a trip to a Third World country, where they have to earn the money for a car.
Our children first and foremost need us to give them our attention, not our…”pages 162-163
Shefali made me think. TV, computers and electronic games give kids things to do to relieve their boredom. They also give parents more time to get things done. What do you think? Do more experiences and less TV, electronic games, and computers appeal to you?
Let's PRAISE Shefali Tsabary, PhD for sharing these important thoughts.
Shefali Tsabary
You'll find her book The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children on Amazon.com
Sit back, relax, and share your opinions about this blog post or your suggestions for relieving boredome in your kids? Please answer in the comment link below. We want to hear from you.
With warm wishes,
Jean Tracy, MSS
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