It’s vacation time and it’s freezing cold outside! My kids would happily choose to look at an electronic screen all day, if I let them. But the mean mommy thinks kids should be doing other things besides focusing their eye balls all day on flashing lights and images. Back in California, I’d just say go outside and play and get some fresh air. But here it’s really cold, and even I don’t want to be out there, nor do I really want them playing by the partially frozen canal. Yes, I know they can put on layers and gloves and scarves, and hats and that there’s no bad weather, just bad dressers… But I guess we’re just lazy dressers and really not used to this level of cold.

Yesterday I told them that they were going to “have” to read before getting on their computers and video games. You would have thought I asked them to do 8 hours of chores. Our family has a motto, work then play. But all they wanted to do was play! Eventually they came around, but man, it was a challenging parent day!

Today, we actually enjoyed family reading time together, and the pain was gone! They got to have their screens back because they did the work first. I was content. But then I said it was time to do something else after an hour+ of e-play time, and they should do something together like play a board game. They said I was old fashioned, and that maybe I played games as a kid but they didn’t think that was a fun idea at all! Really? Am I that (old) fashioned? Probably so. I didn’t insist that they play a game, but I did insist they choose something other than electronic devices.

Th good news is they did find some great ideas. They went outside and juggled a soccer ball for awhile together. As it was really cold out, this didn’t last long. So they came in and asked if they could make guacamole. I said yes, as long as they cleaned up after themselves. it was cool to listen to them work together and to observe the process, without interfering which was challenging for me!

After they were done, and some friends came over, guess what they wanted to do again? Yep – you guessed it! Back to the computers to play Minecraft together. At least they were practicing sharing and had done research learning how to build different structures. I don’t get it, but maybe I’m just old fashioned! Where’s my Atari?

And the girls? They were upstairs being creative with technology too – downloading the Harlem Shake song, making up their own dance and recording themselves with an iPod Touch! I guess i do love it, but I sure do miss my tape recorder and stereo!

What do you think about kids and technology? Is it a good thing? Do you set limits? I’m still learning by doing and don’t quite have it figured out yet. If it was warm outside, I’d say go outside and play!