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A Fathers’ Grievances
I am on holiday with my three boys and I should be relaxed and enjoying the rest. In some ways I am. I spending plenty of time lying on the beach letting my mind wonder and allowing my body to unwind.
However, there is one thing that is consistently annoying me. A small but persistent itch in my head that surfaces throughout the day. Screens. It seems every time I turn my back for one minute my boys resort to going on their screens.
They are 15, 12 and 8 years old. They do a whole variety of things on their screens including playing games, watching YouTube or in the case of the eldest scrolling on Instagram and doing Snapchat.
We have limits on their devices but children aren’t stupid. The hotel room has a smart tv and they have already logged into YouTube. I brought my tablet and they know my code so they take advantage of that too. My wife lets them do her Duolingo for her so thats more screen time. Where there’s a will there’s a way right?
I am not anti-screens but I think anyone can certainly have too much of them. I have no problem if my children play a game for 30mins and then put the device down. However, I have realized what annoys me is it becomes the default goto thing when there is nothing more obvious to occupy their attention.
