Let’s face it, the statistics don’t lie. Kids ages 8-18 are spending more than 7 hours a day with their faces glued to a device or gadget of some sort. Whether it be a computer, iPad, smartphone, television, video game system, or anything else.
According to a recent study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, “The average kid sponges in 2.5 hours of music every day, almost 5 hours of TV and movies, 3 hours of Internet and video games, and just 38 minutes of old-fashioned reading.”
Yes, we live in a tech-savvy and tech-crazy world, to the point that most kids can’t even imagine a world at home, school, or anywhere else without being surrounded by some sort of device within arms reach.
Kids used to come home from school and play in the backyard or ride bikes with their friends. Now, as soon as they come home, they want to plop on the couch and transform into a media garbage disposal for hours at a time.
- Whatever happened to kids being told to go outside and being given no choice but to use their imagination to have fun?
- Whatever happened to our boys playing with sticks and homemade slingshots, and our girls playing with dolls and fixing each other’s hair?
- Whatever happened to kids having only one option for playtime – a cardboard box and a world full of ideas?
- Whatever happened to kids sitting down and enjoying reading a good book?
- If you ever fear that your kids are spending too much time in front of their gadgets, and wish that you could motivate them to action (other than the action in a video game), here are 3 ideas for how to motivate your kids to spend less device time…
1. PAY THEM to read a book
Yes, that’s right. Pay them to read a book. I’ve heard this idea from multiple leaders, and I love it. Why not choose what books you want your kids to read, and then tell them once they’re finished, you’ll pay them $10 (or whatever amount you choose).
There are some great books out there that this generation may never even know existed if we don’t expose them to those books. What better way to motivate your kids to read than to pay them to do it?
If you don’t agree with paying your child to read, then let me ask you the question, “What’s it worth to you to develop your child into a reader rather than a device junkie?” $10 seems like an awfully cheap price.
2. SHOW THEM how much fun you can have
Sadly, one of the biggest reasons our kids have become device junkies is because they have some amazing examples to follow of how to do it best – mom and dad.
If your family time consists of everyone sitting around in the living room doing their own separate things on their own devices, including mom and dad, let’s get really clear here – who’s to blame?
More than our kids desire to spend time on their devices, they’re craving to spend time with us. Our kids want to have fun with us, the problem is that we often don’t want to have fun. Let’s be honest in admitting that we enjoy our “adult” lives, and so we would rather sit on the couch all night than go outside and play baseball, take a walk, or build a fort to protect ourselves from the bad guys.
I believe that if our kids saw how much fun they could have doing other things, they’d be more motivated to do them. And nothing is more motivating than when mom and dad participate in the fun.
3. FORCE THEM to do more productive things with their time
Just in case we’ve forgotten, let me remind us all that We Are The Parents.
- We actually are the ones in charge of our families.
- We actually have the right to tell our kids what they can and can’t do.
- We actually can set timed limits on their device usage.
- We actually can make them do what we want and expect of them.
- We actually can enforce consequences when our expectations aren’t met.
- We actually can make them do more productive things with their time.
Don’t ever fall for the lie that as a parent, there’s just nothing you can do to change your kids. The truth is that…
“You are God’s agent of change in your child’s life.”
God gave you to them to shape and mold them into vessels fit for the Master’s use, and God gave them to you because He considers you trustworthy of such a task.
I’ll be the first to admit that I enjoy the devices that our family owns as much as anyone else. But we always have to be the ones in control of our devices and not the other way around.
According to some recent statistics I read, when parents provide even minimal media guidelines for their kids, it decreases a child’s media consumption by as many as three hours a day. However, only one-third of kids say that their parents put any limits at all on their media use.
Future generations have yet to see the consequences of the current generation being raised and babysat by illuminated screens.
Let’s be mindful to remember that devices are not wrong in and of themselves, but they were never meant to be given the priority of time and attention that most kids and families are giving to them nowadays.
Parents, how could you implement one, two, or all three of these ideas to help motivate your kids to spend less device time?
