Last year I attended a parenting workshop conducted by C M International School, Balewadi, Pune. The resource persons, Mr. James and Ms. Marry while answering one of the parents’ queries said “total no to TV” for small kids. Though I was attending the workshop as a teacher, but when these words “total no to TV” struck my ear drums, a mother woke up deep inside me and I started thinking as a parent.
“Is it really possible?” “Can we really refrain our kids from watching TV?” “How will they cope up with other kids of their age who watch cartoons and other superhero shows on TV and have lot of information to share with their peers?”
Forget about TV, kids these days are using mobile phones, ipads and laptops. Today a two – years old knows how to operate a mobile phone. Board puzzles and block games are longer liked by kids. Touch screens have taken over their favourite toys.
Once I came across an audio-video clip. I want to share the same with the readers and I am sure it will be an eye opener to all of us. It went like this:
“There is a boy and his mother at home. Mother tells the boy to play in another room as she completes the household chores. After sometime when she peeps inside the room, she finds him busy playing video games on computer. She tells him to play something else. Again after sometimes she finds him watching cartoons on laptop. She angrily takes away the laptop and shouts at him and asks him to leave the room and play with his toys. Again she finds him sitting on staircase with ipad in his hands. Now her anger knows no limits. She scolds him and takes away the ipad. The boy rushes towards TV remote. At this point of time she is out of her senses. Angrily she packs up all the gadgets – laptop, TV, ipad, computer, chargers and remotes and takes this stuff out for trashing.
After trashing all the gadgets, the relaxed mother tells his boy to play with a football in the garden. Here comes the twist in the story. The poor boy is looking at the football and just wondering why the hell the football is not going up, down or sideways when he is pressing all the upside down buttons on the remote.
Oh God! The poor boy has got that remote from the ground which accidently fell down when her mother was taking the stuff for trashing.”
Take a pause. Think for a while.
This has become an actual reality these days. The time is not far when our kids will not know how to play with a ball. They will look for remotes for everything.
As a teacher of C M International School, I appeal to all the parents to keep their gadgets away from their kids and give them exposure to more and more outdoor activities. Let them come out of virtual world and experience the real one. Let’s simplify their childhood. Let’s make it gadget free.
—Iqbal Kaur Rana
