A colleague and I were chatting this week about the different strategies we have developed to create acceptable family practice around use of electronics by ourselves and our children. Between us, he and I have 6 kids aged 6 to 24, boys and girls and all attached in varying degrees to their electronics.
We have a broad discussion about parental controls, live gaming consoles, access to pornography, violence in first person shooter games, online abuse, snap chat, safety education and risk all through the clichéd lens of ‘in our day we had none of these issues and it was a simpler time etc…’
Truth is risk exposure, vulnerabilities, potential for exploitation, abuse and bullying are not new issues. The platform for exposure may have changed and evolved but little else. What also has not changed is healthy, open and supportive relationships being the best foundation to keep our loved ones educated and safe. Ensuring that we have some of the harder conversations, or set rules that may seem unfair is part of our job not only as parents but as life coaches. The Mandt program has the building of Healthy Relationships as it’s foundational cornerstone.
The challenge comes when we as parents are being told by our 6 or 10 or 13 year olds….. “no phones at the dinner table”, as my wife is posting to Facebook or reading her sport update alerts….
Simon Kemp – Mandt System
