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Your child is fast becoming addicted to mobile phone and it worries you. Sure, it’s only natural for a parent to get concerned about a child’s negative attitude. In addition to consistently exposing their retina to white light, mobile phone addiction can also distract kids from educational and other productive activities. So, what can you do to distract your kid from intense mobile phone usage?
Thankfully, it is possible to make your kid’s environment more interesting than mobile phone. But how? Keep reading to learn more.
First, Understand that Too Much Exposure to Screen Has Consequences
High screen-time or too much exposure to gadget or TV screen comes with certain consequences such as the following;
- Poor academic performance due to distraction caused by mobile phone addiction
- Possibility of being derailed by surfing websites that are not healthy or morally good
- Exposure of the retina to streams of white light at all times can drastically impact a child’s vision
So, How Can You Curtail or Stop a Child’s Addiction to Mobile Phones and Other Screen Gadgets?
You should start by devising ways to make their environment more interesting than sticking to the phone all day long. Some helpful tips to achieve this include the following;
Tip #1: Take the Lead
Whether you accept it or not, children tend to learn by example rather than mere instructions. You may not succeed in distracting your kid from phone addiction when you are also a culprit and barely have time for your kids. So, what they see you do is what they will likely do. If you are too drawn to your smartphone, it’s time to be the example for your kid by spending less and less time on your phone. It’s just a question of time, your child will follow suit.
Tip #2: Encourage and Introduce Fun Activities
You should introduce other fun and useful activities to your child. For instance, you can introduce your child to archery. Choose an adjustable bow for your child with the help of an archery shop attendant.
Subsequently, you can engage your backyard (if it is allowed in your area) to start teaching the kid how to shoot bows. Usually, the first target for kids learning to shoot a bowl is balloons. Indeed, most kids would prefer to spend time learning to shoot a bow than staying glued to a phone. Indeed, archery is a fantastic hobby that any kid will love.
You should also make other essential resources accessible to your child. Typical examples of such resources include interesting/educative books, art supplies and board games such as scrabble.
Tip #3: Cut back Phone Usage Times
Abrupt withdrawal of a phone from a child may cause him or her to go into depression and other negative emotions, since the child is already addicted to the gadget.
To prevent this from happening, you should consider limiting phone usage time at first and fill those hours the child is not using phone with other fun and productive activities mentioned in Tip #2. This gradual and more strategic process will be more effective. You will be surprised that the child would eventually lose interest in phones and gadgets without much coercion.
Tip #4: Spend More time with Your Child
Often, kids tend to resort to smartphones or other negative things as succor, since their parents rarely have time for them. So, learn to spend time with your kids. Find out what’s going on with them in school and elsewhere, and play with them as often as you can.
The truth is, kids really yearn for the attention of their parents who are rather busy doing other things that can never be equated with the emotional wellbeing of their kids. In fact, some parents are even the ones encouraging their kids to spend time with mobile phones since they do not get involved in these kids’ lives.
But the truth is, for a child to be well-rounded and groomed, you cannot take out those detailed and intimate moments spent with a child — which is what proper parenting requires.
Tip #5: Get Your Kids involved in House Chores
When a child has extensive idle time, he or she will definitely look for other things to be occupied on. If all your child does is to do home work, eat and play, and do not help out in anyway, he or she will definitely get attracted to mobile phone to stay busy.
So, start early to involve your kids in house chores and other meaningful activities. When you cook in the kitchen, get them to help handle smaller tasks such as washing vegetables, measuring out ingredients, and cleaning up after cooking. Also, your kids should be involved in keeping the house tidy, watering the plants in the garden and so on.
Finally, you need to understand that there’s no idle time for a kid, they must always have something to do. So, get them involved in meaningful activities to distract them from mobile phone.
Before Tom Nochera began writing stories for children, he wrote technical manuals for start-up companies, but he found that as much fun as eating bark off a tree. So, he started writing poems for kids. His first book of poems was A Place That’s Fun, written under the pen name Ichabod Ablegoose. He currently works in catering in Washington, D.C., while continuing to grow his writing career with the help of his biggest inspiration, his children. A Goat Named Joey is his second book. A bullied child himself, Tom wrote this book to help all children escape the hate of bullying.
