“Daddy!!!! I… Want… To…. Play….Your….Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!”
Maybe I should have known from the get go that it was a bad idea to introduce my son to Modern Combat 3 for Android. That was probably the first mistake. But in my own defense, it’s a killer game, it works on the Samsung Galaxy, and it was keeping him entertained for a couple of days. With two toddlers always running around nagging, is it such a bad thing to create a few days of peace?
It was heartbreaking news to him. When I told him I didn’t have my game anymore. Of course, there is still Spiderman on Netflix or Yo Gabba Gabba on YouTube, but that’s not really the issue here dude.
Neither is the rug according to Donny.
The issue has become that I have let my kids become too attached to technology. It’s kind of hard not to because of what I do. I was also raised around technology and it was always something my parents allowed us to be around. My dad has been a computer dude for as long as I can remember. So of course, I remember the birth of Windows, the days when the only two computers at the elementary school were IBM and Macintosh. It’s always been a part of my life.
Now, as I have officially become a full-time SAHD (temporarily) there is more time to be spent with technology. Come on, I’m a blogger, Twitter junkie, YouTube-a-holic, and I even text and call with Google. Technology is a very integrated part of my life. Naturally, it’s a big part of my children’s lives. I’ve seen the benefits so why not start em early, eh?
But after witnessing the tantrum following the quote at the top, I knew that the time had come to start putting some good restrictions on the amount of time spent at computers and games. Even harder to accept, was that this means myself as well. How do you ask a geeky, blogging, tweeting, dad, to lay down the keyboard? I don’t know. How do you ask Van Goh to sew his ear back on because he did a poor cutting job?
I guess we all have a little bit to learn. I’m sure there is some kind of time management technique I just haven’t utilized. There are other ways of making sure my online work is done and going like it should without having to be dialed in every 5.69 seconds. There are activities we can all enjoy together. I mean, I do run a half-dying series on my blog called “Craft Time with the Dude”.
There is a strong chance the kids will handle it better than me. In fact, I guarantee it. I heard one time that your attention span in minutes is equal to your age in years. In that case, they will quickly forget about it and move on to what’s next. As for me, I will be sitting here, twitching like a coffee addict without a mug, a photog without a lens, or some other cliche relation you can make from it. Can you blame a geek?