Kids Today Are Doing Everything Earlier Arent They?

Kids today are doing everything earlier arent they? We hear it all the time. Having boyfriends and girlfriends earlier, sitting exams, staying home alone etc. And as I have recently discovered, using technology!

My son from the word go was very technologically minded, he would grab at the TV gadget, would play with the keys on the phone and turn the TV on and off. Recently he has started nursery, prior to starting nursery he couldnt use the mouse on the computer and if he wanted to do anything on the computer needed someone to sit with him, a month later from starting nursery and he can use the mouse quite confidently! iPod touch? No problem! He’s even sussed out how to find the new app’s thankfully he hasnt remembered my password yet!

But ultimately is this a dangerous thing? Are our children gaining more knowledge than is needed? Are we from an early age restricting their excercise?

Its far to easy as parents to let our children sit in front of the TV, play on the computer etc so that we can get on with the housework, the chores, have a bath and for the WAHM mums, do just that! If we as parents are tired Cbeebies is the ideal babysitter is it not? The reality is that not that many years ago televisions, computers, ipods, game consoles werent around! Whilst I was growing up computers were gaining a presence and I can remember picking up very quickly how to use them and often being better than my parents at solving computer problems. I didnt however think that one day my own children would be better than me with technology, after all I grew up with the technology. But maybe they will? Maybe they are going to be of the generation that use technology for everything. One day maybe my son will have a better grasp of computers than I do, maybe he’ll have cracked hurdles I havent such as HTML. I guess time will tell.

So over this summer just remember there are many other easy baby sitters such as puzzles, board games, tea parties with teddys, making dens, cars out of boxes – all these things that require just a little imagination and can entertain children for hours, so turn off that TV, switch off the PC and join in! Play the games you once enjoyed yourself! And while your at it why not share with us what those games were? What did you do before computers?