I am a mother of two kids – one aged 10 and the other aged 2. People often ask me how I manage with this big difference. I have only one answer – I don’t!! She somehow seems to be growing up on her own. Thanks to my virtual nanny – my iPhone and iPad.
As soon as my daughter turned 1 year old, she started using the iPhone like a pro. From “swiping” to start the iPhone, opening any app she wanted (even if it was inside a folder), to even deleting them – it didn’t take long for her to learn.
Luckily, I found her deleting apps before any real damage was done. At first, I panicked and decided not to give her the device. But whenever I was doing my chores, she would get cranky and I had no choice but to indulge her.
I felt a little guilty about it. But, slowly, as we both started exploring the features of the iPhone, I learned how to balance things.
First thing to do is to decide how much time is safe to let the kids use the smartphone. Many people will have different ideas. I just decided that I would NOT let her use the iPhone/iPad for long periods at a time. When I am working in the mornings doing my chores, I would let her play for maybe an hour. I follow the same rule in the evenings too.
After that, I make her keep the phone away and play with her or read books or just sit with her and sing rhymes. I have to mention that she has learned all of those rhymes from listening to them on the phone. She has learned alphabets, numbers, and rhymes and even does shape-matching puzzles. Thanks to various apps I downloaded from iTunes.
The important thing I did was to lock the deleting apps feature and buying in-app purchases feature. It was very simple actually. In iPhone 4S, you just go to the Settings -> General section. In that, you go to the Restrictions and set a password. After that, you can select age restrictions and also turn off or on other features like deleting the Apps etc.
Once this was done, I could happily leave my daughter with her iPhone or iPad without any worry. Many parents forget that you can mostly download the free versions of many of the Apps. If your child likes the App, you can always pay for the complete version later. Once you have blocked the in-app purchase feature, you do not have to worry if your child clicks on the advertisements or anywhere else. Believe me; they are so much smarter than us that they learn to navigate and skip the advertisements!
Times have surely changed from the way I raised my elder kid 10 years back. The technology has grown in leaps and bound. She (elder kid) uses internet on the iPhone/ iPad for help with her school work or just for entertainment. We have not got her a personal smartphone yet. But I am sure the request will be coming in soon.
I am a firm believer that the kids should be up-to-date with all the technologies. They are the ones who have to deal with the outside world.
The only thing we can do is to let them see both sides of life – the side where the technology rules over families and the other side where loving families stick together. I allow my daughter to sit with the iPad. But we have an unwritten rule that she should put it away to spend time with family too. She has understood that we expect her to take responsibility for her behavior when we are giving her the freedom she wants. I hope this will be a path my younger one would be able to follow too.
I have decided not to worry too much. We will take one step at a time, one day at a time.