Whenever possible, consume this technology together with your children. The temptation is for gadgets to be a cheap babysitter, but that’s not a healthy approach. It also makes it harder for you to monitor what they are watching or playing, and when. It may be common sense, but children with a TV or computer in their bedroom use them more. If the kids are using the tablet, the TV goes off, and vice versa. They should use one or the other, not both. Keep in mind that screen time needs to be one rigid block of time that covers both TV and tablets. Certain educational companies have run studies for their particular apps, but nothing peer-reviewed. Books and educational toys were, both of which have now been “replaced” by gadgets. Again, because this was a 20-year study, apps were not part of the equation. The Guardian recently ran the results of a study that showed brain stimulation at age 4 could show lasting, beneficial effects in the teenage years. Because the birds fly at a certain speed and trajectory, the kids have to be learning physics, right? Yet the market is so new that there have been very few studies on the effectiveness of learning apps geared for small children. The same cannot be said for the explosion of early childhood educational apps for tablets and smartphones. There are very few people left who are willing to argue that a lot of TV is beneficial for a child. A good idea is to accustom the kids to a balanced lifestyle: equal parts screen time and traditional playtime. Children under two should not have any screen time at all. The official recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics is about two hours per day or less. So what ground rules should parents have for responsible tablet and smartphone use? And how much is too much? Among pediatricians, there are some very legitimate concerns about childhood obesity, irregular sleep patterns, and violence that seem to come along with increased screen time. Although TV or apps on a gadget are sometimes a necessary evil (with some children, it might be the only way a parent can free themselves to cook dinner or clean the house), it’s the same time that would have been spent playing outside or with toys a generation ago. No wonder Netflix struck a deal with Disney for the exclusive rights to stream Disney content starting in 2016.įor well-meaning parents, allowing kids “screen time” comes with some inherent guilt. Whether on a tablet, smartphone or TV, many small children can now navigate through Netflix’s vast collection on their own. Not surprisingly, Netflix has quickly become the busy parent’s best friend. With Christmas just around the corner, it’s probably safe to assume that statistic will leap even higher in the next week as more kids find their first iPad or Galaxy Nexus under the tree. Half of children under 8 now have access to a mobile device of some kind, be it a tablet or smartphone. The next 15 posts are some of the most awkward situations babysitters have been in. Some were fairly innocent, while others were more disturbing. One online reddit post asked babysitters to tell them their most awkward situations, and boy did they deliver. The difference is they are getting paid for it, some not enough. From troubling kids, naked kids and even some really inappropriate parents, they’ve seen it all. It's a different story when you add a babysitter to the mix, who finds themselves in the center of some pretty awkward situations. We all love hearing about awkward situations, especially when they happen to someone else. And we take these awkward situations and turn them into funny jokes to share later. I have told my toddler more than once not to eat the furniture. When you become a parent you start saying things you never thought you would ever say. But, we love it about them, it’s how we get a laugh out of this parenting gig. They also have no sense of shame, so they aren’t above running out of their room, naked, while you have dinner guests over. Kids have this lovely trait that causes them to have no filter on the things they say, which can make for some awkward situations. If anyone remembers the show “kids say the darndest things” or has kids of their own, they will know what I’m talking about. Being a parent can carry its own awkward situations.
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