What Kids are doing when Parents Spend a lot of time on their Phones

Current crop of parents have been so much engrossed with their phones, that they have lost contact with reality with what happens to their kids during such time. It is poor behaviour for kids to emulate, as parents are their  closest doppelganger in replicating their actions. It could be a threat to kids social development, their ability to communicate with others. Parents who spend a lot of time on their phones, are not in reality with what is going on around their children, they are not excited to see the kids learn new vocabulary, or mimic their teacher’s mannerism, for them,  it is about new fashion trends or social trends, ready to jump on any social media challenge to just to feel belonged.

One of the fundamental problems kids who have parents who spend a lot of on their phones experience, is lack of proper communication. These kids lack the proper tool to communicate,  they will as well as their parents spend a lot of time on their screen. Face to face conversations with children are of enormous importance, this is how you monitor their demeanour and found out where they are lacking in quality, and work towards improving that side to help in kids development curve. When the family spend time on their screens than face to face conversations, it yields poor communication and place discord in the family as everyone has shown lack of collective responsibility in building  unity.

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• Parental Challenges of keeping tap with responsibilities

• Rise of Sextortion- the need to protect children

• Children’s upbringing- a fundamental concern for all

When the family spend time on their screens, kids become the most affected  they can easily be swayed on social media,  it can be linked to sextortion,  where kids will have to trust someone they meet online thinking they are in the same age bracket with them, not knowing they are operating under pseudonym. They will persuade them to share naked images to such social media friend, which will be used to blackmail them. This is exactly what happens to kids when parents spend a lot of time on their phones. It is total drift away from learning processes,  and kids will struggle to adapt to the situation in order to enable them to have a wider understanding of the society.

Parents are moving into social media space as a new found learning space dragging their children along, it leaves children with certain contents not suitable for their exposure. Parents are ready to jump on any social media challenge with their kids at the expense of their learning.  Sometimes parents allow the kids time on their phones to get them busy so that they can get on with, house chores or finish office work at home,  which they were not able to finish at work place,  when this routine continues to happen,  at some point they become addicted to it,  leaving them out of playground, interaction and having proper kids conversations among their peers to absorb those moments for their next stage in life.

Parents need to find a meeting point to balance time spent on their phones especially when the children are around. You don’t necessarily need the phone every single minute, putting it away will enable you to focus on your family, and work towards achieving your daily goals in your bold pursuit in life, it should not take the central stage in your life. For many when they wake up the first thing they do is to grab their phone, as they start their day, what comes after that is just secondary in that order. You should as parents prioritize spending time with your family more than on your phone, it will build close connection between you and your kids, phones should be used only it is necessary.