When To Use Your Head Instead Of Your Heart As A Parent

Guest Post

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It can be incredibly difficult being a parent when your children decide to make their own rules. We love our kids to pieces and punishing them just seems to go against all of our instincts. But, no matter how well behaved your children may be, there will come a time when they push the boundaries. The way in which we react is so vital and we often make things far worse. However, there are some common sense practices that can help us to minimize the chances of our children getting into bother. This article takes a look at some of these methods and discusses how they can be applied to our children. For the purpose of this article we will assume that your children are teenagers.

How To Balance Their Media Usage

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Our kids would play on their computers/laptops/consoles all day long if it were up to them. Many households seem to have big issues when it comes to laying down the boundaries for this activity. It is important that our children have a healthy knowledge of how to use computers, but there is a limit. If we start to understand why IT media is so important to them, we can begin to get on their wavelength. By talking to your children you will start to see what is so great about these gadgets.  You can lay down a few rules that ensure future arguments are diffused, but ensure everyone understands them. Explain that cell phones are not to be used at the dinner table and limit the amount of hours that they use the internet.

Be A Role Model

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There is little point in expecting them to toe the line when you don’t practice what you preach. If you also use the internet for leisure activities, take some time off and ask your kids to come for a walk with you. Don’t use the phone whilst driving and never answer a call at the dinner table. They will see this behaviour and before you know it they will be back to their old ways.

Join In!

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Why not ask if you can have a quick go on their application and you may start to understand why they love that particular game so much. If they are obsessed with a violent based game, explain to them about why violence is not a proper way to solve issues. As long as you remain calm and answer their questions, you will have a much better result than if you just ban them from playing the game in question. Ask your kids to show you all of the games they usually play and see if there are any unsuitable ones amongst them.

Make Suggestions

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IT media has many interesting possibilities and you can learn so many useful skills if you know where to look. Encourage your children to take advantage of this fantastic resource and try to align their surfing with a real life interest. You may be surprised to learn how talented they can be!

Charlie Smith, author of this post, is a keen follower of cool and new updates in software technology and he works for Well Researched Reviews. When he is not busy reviewing keylogger software, he likes to indulge in sports and blogging.

17 Comments

  1. When to use your head instead of your heart: When your toddler wakes you up in the middle of night and you start feeling angry. Separate yourself from the toddler for a bit to cool down. Using your head when you are exhausted takes a lot of work but saves everyone a lot of trouble.

  2. I agree, there are definitely times when we need to let our heads rule and do the responsible thing as parents.

  3. IT media is huge with my oldest who has Autism. We always have issue getting him interested in other things.

  4. Absolutely! If I let my kids play for as long as they wanted they’d be on 24/7. Teach by example. If we’re constantly plugged in, that’s what they’re going to learn!

  5. Love the tip of putting a limit on the use of electronics and keeping their lives in balance. My wife and I have actually found that our 3 kids are better behaved and calmer when they have limits and boundaries placed on them.

  6. I am guilty of being constantly plugged in. Leading by example in this area is not an easy task. Joining in is a really good way of monitoring what your kids are up to when you are not around.

  7. These are so true. So many time parents try to be their kids best friends instead of doing what’s best for them. I have to set boundaries or my son would play video games all day.

  8. I’m definitely NOT my children’s friend, I’m the momma. If left to my children, every single one of them would be glued to a phone, kindle, computer, wii or some other type of media. I’ve put parental controls on everything so hopefully that will help a bit. What I can’t stand it their complete and utter dependence on media. My son went without his cell phone for about 2 hours the other day as a disciplinary action, and you’d think we cut his arms off!

  9. Realizing when to use your head instead of your heart and stepping back to analyze before jumping in feet..or head first is always the hardest part.

  10. Too much time on electronics is evil! The kids get braindead and they tend to get a bit out of hand as well. Yes, being parents is not always easy but, in the long run, they’ll appreciate that we’re a bit strict versus letting them have the run of the house!

  11. Sometimes as a parent it is so hard to rule with the head.

  12. We limit our children’s electronic device (usually the computer or their Nintendo DS systems) time to about 45 minutes, 2-3 times a week at most. We also make sure we are all unplugged and involved during dinner time.

  13. Agree on all points. We definitely need to use our head with our kids and media usage because the more time tehy spend on games, the more of a bad attitude they seem to get.

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