I'm a full-time mummy

I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this. Do note that sharing this does not mean I agree or disagree with it.

I do believe that iPads are beneficial for educational purposes provided that you moderate the usage of it for your kiddos and you filter through the apps that they have access to.

A friend once shared to us that one of their friend's child was so addicted to iPad that when given a real book to read, the child does not know how to turn the pages of the book. The child just stared at the book and tried to use their fingers to swipe the book expecting the pages to be flipped as how it would be on iPad.

Our kiddos used to have access to the iPads for up to 2 hours a day, then we switched it to weekend usage only and now, it has been almost 2 months since we took away all our iPads and our kiddos have been free from it. I do feel that they are better without it for now. Maybe we will change our stance in future but for now, the iPads are a no-no. That's just how we do it for now, of course, every family functions differently. Feel free to share your thoughts. No bashing, no judging please. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:

Experts have warned that parents who allow babies and toddlers to access tablet computers for several hours a day are in danger of causing “dangerous” long term effects.

 The youngest known patient being treated in the UK is a four-year-old girl from the South East. Her parents enrolled her for compulsive behaviour therapy after she became increasingly “distressed and inconsolable” when the iPad was taken away from her. Her use of the device had escalated over the course of a year and she had become addicted to using it up for to four hours a day.

Dr Richard Graham, who launched the UK’s first technology addiction programme three years ago, said he believed there were many more addicts of her age.  “The child's mother called me and described her symptoms,” he said. "She told me she had developed an obsession with the device and would ask for it constantly. She was using it three to four hours every day and showed increased agitation if it was removed."

Dr Graham said that young technology addicts experienced the same withdrawal symptoms as alcoholics or heroin addicts, when the devices were taken away. He warned that the condition prevented young people from forming normal social relationships, leaving them drained by the constant interaction.

 "Children have access to the internet almost from birth now,” he told the Sunday Mirror. “They see their parents playing on their mobile devices and they want to play too. It's difficult, because having a device can also be very useful in terms of having a reward, having a pacifier. But if you don't get the balance right it can be very dangerous.

"They can't cope and become addicted, reacting with tantrums and uncontrollable behaviour when they are taken away. Then as they grow older, the problem only gets worse. Even the most shy kids, when they hit their teens, suddenly want to become sociable and popular."

It is feared that products such as baby-proof iPad covers and iPotties, which feature built-in iPad stands, only fuel the problem. Parents who have found themselves unable to wean their children off computer games and mobile phones are paying up to £16,000 for a 28-day “digital detox” programme designed by Dr Graham at the Capio Nightingale Hospital in London.

Psychiatrists estimate that the number of people who have become digitally dependent has risen by 30 per cent over the past three years. A survey last week revealed that more than half of parents allowed their babies to play with their phone or tablet device. One in seven of more than 1,000 parents questioned by babies.co.uk website admitted that they let them use the gadgets for four or more hours a day.

James Macfarlane, managing director of the website, said: “Given that babies between 3-12 months are awake for only around 10 hours per day this is a huge proportion of their waking day. “Although 81 per cent of our users felt that children today spend too much time on smart devices, it hasn’t put most of them off using them to entertain their baby.”

Do you have anything else to add?

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I had previously written about how we make use of modern technologies to parent our children and at the same time, educate and learn as we journey into the world of parenthood.

As parents, I absolutely believe there is no way we can avoid and shun our lives from technology and modern devices. It intertwined with almost every aspect of our lives and I feel that the best way is to embrace these technologies but still keep them to a moderate level and of course, being there with our kiddos as we grow along together.

With an Intel® Core™ M processor in our Acer Switch 12 device, it means we get the best of both worlds - a laptop and an ultra-fast tablet useful for our family. I'm very blessed with the magic it does in our everyday lives but as our kiddos grow older and smarter, as parents, we do have to continue to take control and monitor what they do and watch and make sure they don't get too addicted or overly dependent on these modern devices.

So for today's post, I will share with you on our family guidelines on the technology usage for our children.

For our Windows computer, I have added in a Child account since I do let our kiddos use my computer for web browsing and watching educational YouTube videos. Some of the awesome features for this allows me:

- To block certain websites when my child is using the Windows device for browsing

- To enforce control on apps, games and media whether they can download any apps based on the age settings I put in

- To put in control on the screen time whether they can only use my Windows device on certain days (Monday to Sunday) or time range (from what time to what time) and limit of hours' usage on the device

All these awesome measures help us to better monitor our kiddos and yet allowing them to still use our Windows device sensibly.

We also check from time to time certain games that our kiddo loves playing such as Minecraft. My hubby sometimes plays together with our eldest kiddo, going on adventures or free-play mode as we work together to explore and build cool stuff in the game.

I'm amazed with the things that our boy build and also of the things he learned just by playing games like this (survival skills, basic how-to build and hunt knowledge and assembling weapons for defence and hunting and more) Because of his passion in Minecraft, we also load reliable parent-approved video channels/playlists for our boy to watch. These videos are normally game tutorials on how to play the games and review of the games etc. In addition to that, the Acer Switch that we use has a long battery life allowing me & my kiddo’s learning experience to continue longer compared to our other IT devices.

I also have a tasks reward points system for our older 2 kiddos where they get to earn points for accomplishing daily tasks and if their points reached a certain level, they get to redeem certain rewards such as jelly beans for snacks and the ultimate reward which is an hour usage of our tablet or computer.

With all these controls in place, I hope that we will continue to be able to parent our kiddos while we reap the positive impact from using these modern technologies in our daily lives.

In the coming posts, I will share with you some recommended apps and games that we have on our computers and tablets that I personally enjoy using with our kiddos. In the meantime, you can learn more at the Make Magic website. 

Make magic. Every day.

#makemagiceveryday

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, home cooking, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting, children, family or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes!

Title: New Old-Fashioned Parenting: A Guide to Help You Find the Balance Between Traditional and Modern Parenting
Author: Liat Hughes Joshi
Publisher: Vie (February 12, 2015)
ISBN: 978-1849536721
Paperback: 255 pages

Description from the product page:

"There's been a revolution in the family; it's now all about the kids. We've moved on from children being 'seen and not heard', but we're now plagued with the worry of ending up with 'that child' - the one who's running amok and is ill-prepared for life. This book combines contemporary and traditional childrearing methods, bringing fresh thinking to some of the essential parenting issues of our time:

In this manifesto of new old-fashioned parenting there's no pandering, no spoiling, and definitely no dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets at dinner time."
Firstly, I love the title. I came from a simple family, no spanking, no harsh discipline and I love it. I've always tried my best to emulate my parent's parenting style and I trully believed that theirs is the old-fashioned parenting that works (Look at me! Success story hahaha!) and hopefully will be able to make use of the good ones and apply them onto our parenting style in this modern world.

Some of the tips highlighted in this book that I agree with and love:

- Rewarding your kiddos. I believed it is a good motivational tool but should not be overused that it loses its power. Not all chores to be done around the house by kiddos need to be rewarded, I let them know they should contribute and help out as a teamwork.

- Letting off steam. Yes, I shout especially when things get too overwhelming for me to handle. Yes, of course I regret that the moment it happened. We are all human. But like the book said, don't do it too often and watch out as kiddos will easily observed and replicate what and how you behave and react around them. I always make sure I apologised to our kiddos for screaming, explaining to them that mummy is sorry for shouting and scolding etc that mummy need some time off to cool down and calm down as well.

- Training up little helpers. I've read somewhere before that young children do not process negative instructions well. So I make my instruction as simple and straightforward as possible. But unlike the book, I try not to use the word 'please' so often. My personal reason for this is because I don't want to be seen asking for help too often by saying please too many times. As the parent who are most often at home with them all the time, I would want to exert my authority and for our kiddos to remember what mummy said means business.

In addition, I also remember reading somewhere that young children cannot multitasks that well, so we as parent have to keep our instructions short and sweet. Don't go telling your young child 'Go clean up your toys then pack your books into the shelf and tidy up the room'. This sample already represents 3 tasks for them to do, of course for us adults we will understand but for kiddos, we need to give them instruction one by one.

Another page worth to take note of:

About the book structure, I like the 'Common barriers to the NOFP way' section where it highlights the usual doubts and worries on any parents' minds and gives you a better perspective on how to tackle these doubts and concerns.

We practised some of the tips listed in chapter 8 - "Less is More" such as toy rotation, though I wanted to share some other tips we practised which were not listed in the chapter such as:
- Our motto when deciding whether to purchase anything - Do we want it or do we need it?

- Buying preloved items (I've bought some awesome educational stuff and toys for our kiddos this way)

- Keep gifts by relatives and friends given during Christmas or birthdays and space them out for following year/occasions

I skipped chapter 11 which touches on children of preteen age (our kiddos are all below 7 still), chapter 12 as I personally feel with the crime rates in our country now, it is really hard to let go and let our kiddos venture out on their own and chapter 13 on divorce and not being a family unit.

In summary, I would totally recommend this book for any parents wanting to work on their parenting approaches, to take the best from both traditional old-fashioned approach and the modern new style of parenting nowadays.

The book is available at all major bookstores. For international fans, you can find it at Amazon .

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.