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Usually kids reflect behavior of their parents. If we, as parents spent enormous time in front if screen (I guess that it's common among HN users), than we cann

Usually kids reflect behavior of their parents. If we, as parents spent enormous time in front if screen (I guess that it's common among HN users), than we cannot expect different behavior from our children. It's about lifestyle.

opyate 4y ago
I was glued to my PC in the nineties, while my folks read, played crossword, and talked to family on the phone. I guess we all get consumed by something which interests us. I'm lucky to have had a very balanced life. I had the geeky friends at school, and a whole mixture of friends via church. My dad was very sporty, so that rubbed off a bit on me: I participated in everything school had to offer (rugby, cricket, athletics); never any good, mind you, but there was always a C or D team that would me. My folks love caravan holidays, so we were away with the caravan club every second weekend, and the cherry on top were those 6+ weeks summer holidays by the riverside. We made plenty of friends this way, and had a variety of activities to occupy us (fishing, swimming, games, and the lone Double Dragon arcade machine in the canteen). But, when back home, I was very happy to switch on the old 486DX4 and tinker with Slackware and code Pascal or dual boot into DOS/Windows3.11 and tweak bat files so I can play Lemmings or something. Perhaps it boils down to offering our own kids as many opportunities as possible. Not forcing it on them, but participating with them and showing a genuine interest. E.g. we've turned our 5 and 9 year olds into avid hikers by not forcing the walking on them, but by calling it "treasure hunting" and incorporating geo-caching into the walking. (Their friends, when coming along, ask me to carry them after a while, haha). When we go camping, we pick car-free campsites where they can roam free, and we can trust them because we've done all the tricky stuff with them a few times before. Those are their favourite holidays. That said, being glued to a computer today is a whole different ball game, what with the various algorithms that keep folks engaged on social media and possibly in games. I don't know if I have an answer for this. (For our little ones, their tablets are managed by Google Family link, so no Youtube, and websites on Chrome and Play Store installs are approve-only.)

opyate 4y ago

I was glued to my PC in the nineties, while my folks read, played crossword, and talked to family on the phone. I guess we all get consumed by something which interests us. I'm lucky to have had a very balanced life. I had the geeky friends at school, and a whole mixture of friends via church. My dad was very sporty, so that rubbed off a bit on me: I participated in everything school had to offer (rugby, cricket, athletics); never any good, mind you, but there was always a C or D team that would me. My folks love caravan holidays, so we were away with the caravan club every second weekend, and the cherry on top were those 6+ weeks summer holidays by the riverside. We made plenty of friends this way, and had a variety of activities to occupy us (fishing, swimming, games, and the lone Double Dragon arcade machine in the canteen). But, when back home, I was very happy to switch on the old 486DX4 and tinker with Slackware and code Pascal or dual boot into DOS/Windows3.11 and tweak bat files so I can play Lemmings or something. Perhaps it boils down to offering our own kids as many opportunities as possible. Not forcing it on them, but participating with them and showing a genuine interest. E.g. we've turned our 5 and 9 year olds into avid hikers by not forcing the walking on them, but by calling it "treasure hunting" and incorporating geo-caching into the walking. (Their friends, when coming along, ask me to carry them after a while, haha). When we go camping, we pick car-free campsites where they can roam free, and we can trust them because we've done all the tricky stuff with them a few times before. Those are their favourite holidays. That said, being glued to a computer today is a whole different ball game, what with the various algorithms that keep folks engaged on social media and possibly in games. I don't know if I have an answer for this. (For our little ones, their tablets are managed by Google Family link, so no Youtube, and websites on Chrome and Play Store installs are approve-only.)