1. Share a photo that best represents your June.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage Kainoa’s obsession with electronics this summer.
He would spend every waking moment hooked up with a game or a YouTube video if he could.
I’ll admit, it’s a nice break when he’s tuned into an electronic and not in my face all day when I’m trying to work.
Even better is when he’s at school because then I don’t have to manage his electronics time at all.
Luckily for me, on the very first day of summer, Kainoa threw a temper tantrum when I told him it was time to take a break.
I encouraged him to come with me and his sisters to the mall, but he responded rudely that he would do no such thing and that he would not take a break. Long story short, I turned his video game off and he threw his controller across the room.
I saw the writing on the wall. This was only day one of summer break and I was not about to go head to head with this kid every time I asked him to take a break.
I took his video games away completely and he was begging for it back within an hour. Amazing how so very very sorry they can be when you take away their addiction.
To earn his video games back I made him first write up his own summer schedule where electronics are concerned and he added in the breaks from electronics throughout each day.
Now, instead of fighting with him over when I think it’s time for him to take a break, I just say “Kainoa what time is it?”
He looks at his schedule and informs me how much time he has left on his electronics before his break begins.
If he is frustrated with how looonnnng the break is (and he is), he has only himself to blame since he is the one that wrote up the schedule to begin with.
Don’t worry, we also spent time listing things he could do during his break.
He could ride his bike, go to the neighbor boy’s house, play basketball, clean his room, etc
Nevertheless, he spends a lot of his break doing this instead.
Because it’s just so boring.
But at least our cat is comfortable.
VandyJ says
Navigating Screen time can be challenging. We are lucky, both our boys don’t really argue when we say do something else. We have turned them off before so that threat is real to them and they follow directions with little objections.
John Holton says
I dunno how you do it. I’m just glad I didn’t have to.
Your cat looks like Kismet, a/k/a Kittyface, our first.
Gigi says
Luckily for me, mine wasn’t so into electronic games when he was younger – and, he didn’t have all the options that the kids today have; thank goodness. And you having him make up that schedule? Pure genius.
Abby says
Oh, I hear ya. “Addiction” is right. It’s great that he wrote up his own schedule, and that he’s actually sticking to it!