Why Computer Time Should be Limited
By Lisa Pederson
I learned a valuable lesson last night. I cannot comprehend the reason I have not learned this lesson before last night. It is an obvious lesson that I have been being taught for several years now. Time on the computer needs to be limited, not just in the amount of time, but the time of day, also.
I love to be on the computer. I have done a year of college online. I play games online and offline. I enjoy email and blogging. I like finding answers to questions with the touch of a few buttons instead of dragging little ones to the library and keeping track of them while searching for answers. But I have a problem with how much I enjoy those things. I can't stop until a beat a new game. I can't quit reading those blogs. I get caught up in all the links to new information I am researching. Then the problems begin.
Just last night, as I sat nursing the baby and playing a new game I just had to beat, the problem hit me upside the head. I spent 3 hours on the computer, thinking other people would keep track of my three year old daughter. No, they will not do that. So, between the hours of 6pm and 9pm she trashed the house.
Trinity started by coloring nicely with markers with her big sister on the couch. When her sister got tired of coloring, she took off with the markers and colored all over my big overstuffed chair! Thankfully it is washable marker and the fabric is under a warranty if it doesn't come off. From there she went into the kitchen and decided to help cook. She took a few spice jars out and dumped them all into the pan of chicken and all over the counter. Then took the cans for a food drive and dropped them in the chicken drippings. Next she opened a hamburger helper type meal and poured the noodles all over the stove. From there she went to my bedroom where she dug in my jewelry chest and took out lotions and gels and smeared some all over my sheets and the padding on the side of my bed, and all over the door handle to the bathroom where she went to apparently clean herself off. Her plate of food ended up upside down on my white carpet and she peed her pants while sitting on some clean, folded clothes. Apparently she also fed the fish. A LOT.
Alright, this is obviously my problem, not hers. I wouldn't be cleaning all that stuff up if I had not been ignoring her. I need to limit checking email to only while nursing the baby, before she wakes up, and after she goes to bed. I definately cannot play games while she us awake unless she is next to me playing on the other computer.
The benefits of changing this behavior will be far reaching. All the children will get more attention. I will remember more of what they say to me! My house will be cleaner because I will have more time for cleaning and Trinity will have less free time to make messes. And Samuel won't grow up thinking we worship the computer instead of God. Also, the timing of this lesson couldn't be better as my oldest two children are starting online high school and college in January, so they won't have to fight me to get their school work done.
Now if only my husband would come to the same conclusion. We could get so much more time together.
By Lisa Pederson
I learned a valuable lesson last night. I cannot comprehend the reason I have not learned this lesson before last night. It is an obvious lesson that I have been being taught for several years now. Time on the computer needs to be limited, not just in the amount of time, but the time of day, also.
I love to be on the computer. I have done a year of college online. I play games online and offline. I enjoy email and blogging. I like finding answers to questions with the touch of a few buttons instead of dragging little ones to the library and keeping track of them while searching for answers. But I have a problem with how much I enjoy those things. I can't stop until a beat a new game. I can't quit reading those blogs. I get caught up in all the links to new information I am researching. Then the problems begin.
Just last night, as I sat nursing the baby and playing a new game I just had to beat, the problem hit me upside the head. I spent 3 hours on the computer, thinking other people would keep track of my three year old daughter. No, they will not do that. So, between the hours of 6pm and 9pm she trashed the house.
Trinity started by coloring nicely with markers with her big sister on the couch. When her sister got tired of coloring, she took off with the markers and colored all over my big overstuffed chair! Thankfully it is washable marker and the fabric is under a warranty if it doesn't come off. From there she went into the kitchen and decided to help cook. She took a few spice jars out and dumped them all into the pan of chicken and all over the counter. Then took the cans for a food drive and dropped them in the chicken drippings. Next she opened a hamburger helper type meal and poured the noodles all over the stove. From there she went to my bedroom where she dug in my jewelry chest and took out lotions and gels and smeared some all over my sheets and the padding on the side of my bed, and all over the door handle to the bathroom where she went to apparently clean herself off. Her plate of food ended up upside down on my white carpet and she peed her pants while sitting on some clean, folded clothes. Apparently she also fed the fish. A LOT.
Alright, this is obviously my problem, not hers. I wouldn't be cleaning all that stuff up if I had not been ignoring her. I need to limit checking email to only while nursing the baby, before she wakes up, and after she goes to bed. I definately cannot play games while she us awake unless she is next to me playing on the other computer.
The benefits of changing this behavior will be far reaching. All the children will get more attention. I will remember more of what they say to me! My house will be cleaner because I will have more time for cleaning and Trinity will have less free time to make messes. And Samuel won't grow up thinking we worship the computer instead of God. Also, the timing of this lesson couldn't be better as my oldest two children are starting online high school and college in January, so they won't have to fight me to get their school work done.
Now if only my husband would come to the same conclusion. We could get so much more time together.
5 people think my kids are qtpies:
Wow! really great comment. I am off of here and out to do laundry....I agree totally. And although that sounded like such a lot of work blogging it is such a great way to remember and reminisce in later years! I used to get on the weight watchers blog last year ad even had my own thread but I spent so much time on there, my then 12 year old daughter started making comments, and I thought "Who is more important?" My daughter of course. I dropped the thread and spend more time with my kids. I only have 2. I wanted more but it didn't work out so you are my hero with 7!!!!! Way to go!
Wait... you plan on possibly making a warranty claim on the fabric of the chair because you weren't supervising your kid and she colored on it???
Hmm, Anonymous. Wouldn't you think that when I buy a stain repellent and warranty for over $300 to protect my sofa against things that happen when you have children, that I'd want to be able to use it? Why do you think they make it? Why do they sell it? So you can say, well I KNOW I paid for this service, but what they heck, its my fault, so I'll just let the ink stay in the fabric instead of calling the company and having them send me a kit that gets ink out of the fabric.
Do you have kids? Things happen. Things you can't control. Even when I am not playing on the computer and am doing something I should be doing, things happen. Like big kids think markers in their backpacks are safe from a toddler, and they aren't. You can't prevent all disasters from happening, and you CAN'T watch a toddler every waking second. I could use a child leash to keep her with me, but then I suppose you'd have the opposite comment.
Just so you know, when people make comments like that and think "When I have kids, I won't let my kid...." God gives them a kid that does that stuff to show you a lesson. Sorry, Anonymous, but you've sorta brought it on yourself, lol. I've had enough of those words bite me in the butt that I don't critisize anymore.
Oh, and I DO buy warranties to help me out when these things happen! And I DO use them when these protected things happen. But I don't lie and say the tiny hole my bird made in the fabric was an accidental poke and get my couch recovered for free.
Please don't be a chicken and sign your name when you critisize people.
Anonymous (aka Melinda) said...
Do you really expect a warranty to cover any and every thing a kid can do? I feel that is unreasonable.
I do have children. They're older now, but I know it is possible to create a home that is fairly "child-proof". (One dump of fish food into the aquarium and the food would be placed in an area inaccessible to small children.)
Am I "chicken" to tell you my name? (Did you really refer to me as 'chicken'? :-) Why no.. it's Melinda. Thank you for asking. If you don't want anonymous posts, you should disable that feature.
No, I don't expect a warranty to cover everything a kid can do. But when they use those things as a selling point to the warranty, its not a "warranty" as much as a stain gaurd that covers these things, I bought the warranty. They specifically cover inks, pee from kids and pets, accidental rips and tears and holes worn into the fabric due to inferior fabric. (one chair came with two holes and they replaced it) The do not cover the silly putty in the couch.
So, if you paid $300 for a warranty that covered ink stains from kids, you actually would let it sit there? I bought it because they covered that stuff, even though I have not actually had a child do that to our furniture before.
Oh, and the warranty company sent me a kit to clean the ink, and its great! Glad I paid the money for it, and VERY glad I'm not too racked with guilt to use the service I paid for. I just can't wrap my brain around why someone would actually not use a service that they bought because its their own fault??? I paid for it. I like my couches.
Oh, here, lets say you accidentally hit someone's car with yours. You have insurance for that purpose, but it was your own fault for not paying attention. You wouldn't use the insurance? You would seriously chuck out the money to fix both vehicles because its your fault, even though you've paid to have them fixed if you accidently do that?
I bought "insurance" for my couches.
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