Kids and Electronics

Yesterday, my 16 year old son gave me his tablet.  He said he spends too much on it.  He prefers having to use our home laptop that has a password on it, and he asked me to help him regulate.  

I got choked up.

These kids of ours have a really difficult world to navigate.  All around them are time wasting, immoral traps that are engineered to suck them in.  The two worst decisions I have ever made as a mother, I made last Fall.  I stopped piano lessons and allowed my boys to play gentle on-line games (Clash of Clans and Minecraft).  The only good that has come from this year is that I absolutely know that I am not a fan of time wasting online games, and that piano practicing gives us a structured after school time that fills our home with goodness.

I have shared my opinions with my kids and they are slowly coming to see what I see.  To be honest, Jakob still wants to play an online game with his friends.  But, he wants me to help him monitor his time by forcing him to ask me before he plays.  Isn't that mature of him?  

Brothers and sisters, how do we protect our children and youth? Filters are useful tools, but the greatest filter in the world, the only one that will ultimately work, is the personal internal filter that comes from a deep and abiding testimony of our Heavenly Father’s love and our Savior’s atoning sacrifice for each one of us.  Linda S. Reeves

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/protection-from-pornography-a-christ-focused-home

We had a houseful of people this weekend.  One new friend made a comment that has stuck with me.  Watching my children playing together on our tree swing, she remarked that my kids still enjoy things that are simple and real.

It is true.  Our life is full of things that are real.  This is a good life.

Leah wanted her own desk, like her older sisters.  So, she moved things around and brought a table upstairs.  

She took this picture before I had her move the desk away from her closet.

I love her laptop and tablet.

Her cell phone programmed to call mom.

And I especially love her pile of bookmarks, next to the pile of books she wants to read.

Are we drifting away from things that are real?  Is media a blessing or a curse in your homes?  There is much good in the world!  I hope that my children and I will always choose that good part.

Happy Wednesday.

(In the sleigh on a Carousel.  Eve was so happy, Ben was unsure.)