Opinion: Reduce kids’ screen time or cop the consequences

WHAT’S the point of acquiring wisdom without using it to annoy others with your unsolicited opinions? Which is why I’m going to say the following ...

PARENTING is hard enough without other parents passing judgment on you, but what’s the point of acquiring wisdom without then using it to annoy others with your unsolicited opinions?

Which is why I’m going to say the following – taking your small children along to a music festival and using iPads as babysitters is pathetic.

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I mentioned last week that I went to WOMADelaide, which is an annual festival of international music in, as the name suggests, Adelaide. During the headline concert by French/African outfit St Germain on the Sunday night, thousands of people were jostling and dancing in front of the outdoor stage.

It was dark, of course, but just in front of me I could make out three kids of early primary school age sitting on the ground. All they would have been able to see was a forest of knees and jiggling bums. I could see them because the glow of the screens they were glued to lit their faces.

Presumably the women standing next to them and looking down at them occasionally were their mothers, although they could have been just fans trying not to trample the little mushrooms into the dust.

A lack of resilience has showed up more in kids from affluent families – those that can afford to give small children iPads. Picture: iStock

The scene really annoyed me. I bet the parents would have been full of righteous indignation and outrage if I had inadvertently started pogoing all over junior’s precious head in the mistaken belief that there was only ground underfoot.

I’ve been guilty of letting the telly do a bit of babysitting in the past, but it was at home and it didn’t affect anyone else, and it wasn’t often. Why take kids to a major cultural event if their attention span can’t stand being offline for a few hours?

The Australian Early Development Census national report, released this month, highlighted that there was a rise in the number of children entering the education system who had trouble behaving, showing respect, coping and taking responsibility for their actions.

Interestingly, this lack of resilience showed up more in kids from affluent families. That would be the families that could afford to give small children iPads. And they’ll be the parents in due course tut-tutting that their teenagers never look up from their smart screens.

You reap what you sow.

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