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Why Your Smart Phone is Ruining Your Parenting

July 30th, 2014     By Boys Town Contributor, Mother of six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son

Social Skills, Understanding Behavior

I admit I am slightly addicted to Facebook. I find myself in any 30-second break (at a red light, waiting in line at the grocery store, during TV commercials) I pull out my phone and open up the app to see the latest status updates. Half the time I actually find myself bored with what I see but it has become such a habit.

My 6-year old daughter has started playing pretend phone. The other night during story time, in the middle of Fox in Socks she interrupted me with, “hold on a second mom, I need to send my friend a quick text about a meeting tomorrow”. What?!?

When did a text, a Facebook update or an email become more important or more immediate than living in the moment? Technology can so easily become a distraction from what is important – parenting. And, especially if you have young children they are little sponges and they do as they see. We need to set a good example – limit our technology use to the appropriate time and place. You don’t want to miss out on the good stuff.

This is a great article on how to set appropriate limits for technology use: http://www.parenting.org/article/top-5-strategies-for-parents-on-managing-kids-technology-use, teach your kids and apply it to your life as well.

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