Digital Age Descendants S1:E7 – Attitudinal Children

As parents I am sure we all have at least one instance of an attitudinal child.

So this is my instance of many to come of attitudinal children.  When my boys got home from school one day, they both went on their iPads.  So, being that I want to maintain an active role in my children’s lives, I asked them both about how their day went.  When I asked one son he initially ignored me after asking him again he was in tears and then ran off. I asked the other son the same question and got ignored.  One son did ask me to make him a sandwich, when I asked what he wanted on it I barely got an answer because he was so involved in his iPad. I did however get a “thank you”.  Now I will concede that sometimes nothing much happens in school for them but I still ask them how they day went.

I would like to think that I have a good relationship with all my kids, the biggest thing that I make sure I try and do is be their parent not their friend.  I see a lot of parents be a friend to the child instead of a parent. So far, from what I have personally witnessed is that the kids run rampant over the parents and the parents have lost control.  

    I figured that I would get more attitude from my tween daughter who just started junior high school.  She is older and does more outside in some youth groups that she is involved with. When my boys are old enough they will get to choose what they want to do.  One of my boys has already joined Karate, and I have seen a definite change in behavior with him sometimes drifting back to defiance. They other boy really doesn’t know what he wants to do except build Legos and play on his iPad.

How does this relate to the digital age we live in.  All my kids have to be engaged in something. That trait I will own, I have never been able to sit still.  I have always been active not sitting around on the computer or something along those lines. Growing up I have always preferred to be out and about instead of at home.  In my humble opinion the digital age we are living in is both beneficial and detrimental to our kids. At least from my observations I see kids that are in an unhealthy state, because of the gadgets they enjoy as well as the video games, they also aren’t as active outside of their gadgets.  I understand that body metabolism is different with every child, but when I see a 13 year old girl or boy that weighs what I would guess is close to 140 pounds, I think that that is a problem. They just don’t get out and play until the street lights come on like they used to. The street lights coming on was a sign that I needed to come home. 

I would love to hear your thoughts about this subject.  Please leave a comment of a voice mail.

According to an article I read on healthline.com and reviewed by Dr. Karen Gill MD. The average 13 year old boy in the 50th percentile should weigh about 100 pounds and a 13 year old girl in the 50th percentile should weigh about 101 pounds.