Ellie made some bad choices a little while ago which resulted in a phone call from school, a telling off and a ban from the internet which to be honest has been brilliant for us all! I didn't realise that Ellie spending so much time online was such a problem until she wasn't going online. I will hold my hands up and say I was partly to blame with letting her spend too much time online.
Ellie used to come home from school, do her homework (online), chat to her friends (online), play games (online), listen to music (online), watch anime (online). She spent a lot of time online and the trouble she got into made me realise it was probably too much time online. At the moment the only time she is going online is at school, which is of course monitored and to do her homework at home. She still has time on her computer and plays Minecraft and The Sims but she has spent a lot of time away from her computer too.
We have been talking more. I have found out so much more about her days at school and her friends. We have talked about all sorts. Politics, tv shows, the future and music. She really is a bright girl, way brighter than I was at her age. She is full of opinions and can give a good argument for something she believes in.
Ellie used to hate coming off her computer to eat meals but now she will quite happily sit with us and enjoy her food now that there is no rush to get back online. I'd even go as far to say that she is eating more. She still complains about too many vegetable and that her sister might have one more chicken nugget than her but it's all good.
She has been getting outside more. Ellie has been to the park a couple of times and now that the nights seem lighter we have gone for the odd walk. Not far but enough to stretch our legs. She has showed me some of the places where her and her friends hang out and we have found some great routes to take and some not so great routes which were full of mud.
Colouring in and drawing has become a big thing again and so has building Lego. Ellie did get a jigsaw out but gave up soon after starting. She went for a 2000 piece puzzle which was a little too challenging, she has said she is going to start an easier one soon.
Soaks in the bath have became Ellie's new obsession. Usually it would be a quick dip but now she is spending at least 45 minutes in the tub most nights. lol
Don't get me wrong there has been times when she has said she's bored but I have given her jobs to do which she has done willingly so she must have been really bored. lol She has missed playing online games and chatting to her friends but when she is back online we will be going through her friends lists and removing those who are not a good influence.
With Ellie spending less time on her computer I have been too and I think it has been good for us both. It has been nice to do other things than endlessly scroll through social media.
We decided that Ellie could go back online when half term started and her computer has been moved into the living room so I can keep a closer eye on her and so far it is working well. We have both made mistakes, her with the trouble she got in and me not taking notice of how much time she was spending online. Hopefully she will choose to spend more time offline and I am going to make a point of making sure she does.
Do you or your children spend too much time online?
My son spends more time than ideally I would like online. We do make him sit with us for meals and we make sure that we do things as a family. It is unfortunately typical teenage behaviour for the times that we live in especially over the last couple of years.
ReplyDeleteyes, all of them. I try to encourage the Little man to spend more time doing other stuff, and yesterday he didn't go on his laptop all day. He did watch a couple of videos on his tablet, but he also went to visit his Nan with his Dad and watch a movie. He even helped me do some housework!! The girls ...I don't think I saw them much all day. They were in their bedroom. Boo has been out to friends houses a couple of times recently and Star is off out with her boyfriend on Thursday as it's his birthday. Getting off screens is good, but it's so engrained in our children these days.
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I think my youngest spends too much time online but we are home every single day all day long. He willingly takes breaks for meals, going for hikes, meeting up with friends in real life, etc. so I try not to fret too much but I do point it out to him when he's glued to his screens and remind him that he needs to take breaks and find other things to do. He's usually pretty good about that too.
ReplyDeleteMy son practically lives online but at 33 years old there's not a lot I can do about it unfortunately, luckily when he was a child it wasn't an issue for us as so few people had computers and smart phones weren't invented xxx
ReplyDeleteI really need to do this with N. I don't think the OH will agree as he'll say I'm the bad influence always being online too, but I do read nad do puzzles too. He does go out on the farm, but he's only young so I need to get him off it, and maybe give him an hour a night.
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