Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Parenting While Distracted

A great article by Julie Scelfo in the New York Times, The Risks of Parenting While Plugged In

We have focused on this issue before, but it is so important that we keep posting new information. If you are interested in Montessori, it doesn't help to have the most up-to-date and beautiful equipment if you are absorbed by your phone or Blackberry while you spend time with your child.

Here is a snippet from the article:
"The boy, who Ms. Im estimates was about 2 1/2 years old, made repeated attempts to talk to his mother, but she wouldn’t look up from her BlackBerry. “He’s like: ‘Mama? Mama? Mama?’ ” Ms. Im recalled. “And then he starts tapping her leg. And she goes: ‘Just wait a second. Just wait a second.’ ”

Finally, he was so frustrated, Ms. Im said, that “he goes, ‘Ahhh!’ and tries to bite her leg.”


This is definitely one of those situations in which the parents has to realize that he or she was at fault!

If you absolutely must share work-time and child-time, think of guidelines that you can put into place and follow them stringently. Especially for those of you with children under three, your child must not feel as if he or she is competing with an electronic device for your attention.

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