The way you behave and the things you do leave a huge influence on your children’s development.
Kids always see their parents as their role models and follow them, whether it’s positive and constructive or harmful and destructive.
When a child sees you always busy with your smartphone, they’ll think it’s the right thing to do. Many people would agree with Juliana Mazurkiewicz’s post. She shared a note encouraging parents picking up their kids from daycare should avoid their phones. The post went viral with over 2 million shares. Read the pediatrician of Dr. Liz Donner about the results that parents behaving this way has on their children.
“Kids learn from their parents’ actions,” Dr. Donner told Bored Panda. “Children begin to imitate their parents’ behavior even before the age of one year!”
“Older kids often look to their parents to learn which actions are favorable and appropriate,” the pediatrician pointed out.
Dr. Donner said that, in her opinion, kids are becoming “psychologically addicted to screens from a younger and younger age.”
“I fear that excessive screen time is leading children toward worsening attention deficits, social impairment, emotional dysregulation, learning difficulties, and violent tendencies.” But what can be done about this?
“To reverse these issues on a societal level will take an extreme level of heightened public awareness. It will require the willingness to enforce limitations and adapt personal change on the parents’ behalf.”
Some people shared disagreement with the note’s message
Many people supported the message that parents should give their toddlers the attention they deserve and should feel responsible for the habits they teach them.
Some people were mad that the daycare doesn’t know about some parents’ careers, responsibilities, struggles, and accused the photo of shaming moms and dads.
For instance, Megan Zander writes on Scary Mommy that the note’s an attempt to “make mothers feel bad for trying to multitask” and the message it’s trying to send is, therefore, invalid.
“If a daycare wants me off the phone that badly then they better also be willing to watch my children for free. My phone keeps me connected with work, and without my job, the daycare bill isn’t getting paid,” Zander criticized the viral note.
“Moms aren’t choosing the phone over their child. They’re just trying to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. Working moms face enough judgment already. We don’t need it from the daycare, too,” she added.
In a previous interview, Dr. Donner explained that the biggest challenge parents face when trying to limit their kids’ screen time is finding what to replace it with.
“Limiting screen time increases the amount of valuable real-life skill development. Kids require actual human interaction to enhance their social skills and even motor development. They need to learn to understand the real human facial expression, body language, tone of voice, and reciprocal communication skills,” Dr. Donner stressed.
She added: “Screen-free interaction with your children doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Reading a book to them as early as 6 months of age has shown to increase their language and reading skills later in life. Hands-on play time will teach them social interaction and motor skills that are essential to their healthy development. Lastly, we find that less screen time in the toddler years corresponds to lower rates of ADHD by the age of 7.”
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