TIME OR TABLET: What do you give to your child?

TIME OR TABLET: What do you give to your child?

Tablets or mobiles have now become source of entertainment as well as a source of engaging kids for a fruitful amount of time as both the parents are almost busy in their own professional life. How fast the tablet has replaced toys, as well as taken the place of grandparents who used to narrate stories. Almost a decade back the scenario was different, kids get to learn stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchatantra etc the grandparents used to narrate them. Now a days such stories have become alien to our children.

As our most busy benevolent parents are ready to give them everything at any cost. Parents are giving tablets in the hands of 2 years kids to keep them busy so that they get enough time to do their tasks either personal or professional. Such children when grow up, they do not have time to talk to their own parents because now the children, firstly cannot live without mobiles, secondly now it is a status quo for them, thirdly why should they give time to the parents, when the parents did not give them when they needed. Often, we come across parents saying that the children of this generation do not respect anyone, are not social and cannot face challenges in life. A parent said, “when I come extremely tired my office and asked a glass of water from my daughter”. My daughter replied “take yourself. Believe in self-service”.  It seems with this incident that our children lack moral values and social skills. Most of the time parents’ blame children that they do not greet and meet guests and relatives. Even they do not come out of their room to meet anyone coming to their house.

My question is why the parents are blaming kids for their such unsocial or unethical behaviour because the root cause of the such behaviour is that at the age of 2 or even less, we have given mobiles or tablets to these kids. This has hampered the creativity, innovative and critical thinking amongst them. At the age when parents had to narrate rhymes and stories, to teach moral values and to answer their thousand weird questions, they had given tablets and mobiles to engage the children so that the parents will get time to do their work. When the children needed time from parents, they were being given the so called “Tablet” with the argument that if my child does not assess technology then he/she will be out of the race in future. ‘Time’ was being replaced by ‘tablet’, all because the career-oriented parents wanted to fulfil their dreams.  The cherry on the top is if you ask a student to write a leave application for 2 days from school, the child will immediately search on google rather applying own thoughts.  Social skills development has become entirely the responsibility of schools and children are being given grades for the same.

Nobody is against the technology, but the only point is that it must be given at right age to the children as well to be monitored properly. The behaviour of adolescents is the repercussion of not getting appropriate time from parents when they were too small. Parents are certainly responsible for the lack in social skills and moral values in the youngsters.

This is a call for parents to decide what to give to their kids, TIME or TABLET.