ADDICTION is a heavy word, a negative one, because no form of addiction is good. The latest on the block is phone addiction – An addiction that has enveloped individuals from around the world. This form of addiction is threatening not just for adults but for children, too.
We at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok, one of the most well-known CBSE schools in Gurgaon, have come across many parents whose prime cause of worry is their kids’ rising phone addiction, and are thus looking desperately for ways to reverse the same. So, in today’s blog, we have brought forth for you some tried and tested mechanisms to deal with phone addiction among children. Let’s quickly delve in without any further ado.
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Have a schedule in place:
It has been observed that most children who suffer from phone addiction are the ones who do not have a fixed schedule in place. Their timetable is all over the place, with no dedicated hours for specific activities. This also means most of their time is spent on non-priority and non-productive activities, one of which is to keep playing around with the phone.
Since these children have no other activity lined up, they do not realize where to draw the line and continue to stay glued to the mobile screen for hours. One of the best ways of breaking this pattern is by fixing a routine for children and making them follow the same.
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Learn to say NO:
No wonder all parents wish to be friendly with their children. Though there is nothing wrong with that, it may turn into a problem when parents end up allowing and pampering their kids a little too much. This holds true in terms of phone usage as well.
When parents do not wish to appear rude to their children, and, on many occasions, they choose not to take a stand. What they fail to understand here is that leaving children this loose ends up making them stubborn and rebellious. The ideal way out is to be strict where necessary and say a clear no to excess phone usage.
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Keep aside dedicated phone hours:
We at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok very well understand that not all phone usage is mindless or without a purpose. Just like phones are used for the sake of playing games and for entertainment, they are equally useful for the purpose of learning as well.
To not deprive children of this learning and also the entertainment part, it is best to fix phone hours in advance. Say, every day, you can hand over the phone to your child for 30 minutes, after which until the next day, the child cannot go back to the phone – A sure-shot way of breaking this unfruitful pattern.
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Lead by example:
This is one of the most important points in the list, which probably everybody knows but don’t follow. In fact, we at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok stress a lot on this as far as getting children to break their phone addiction, in general, is concerned.
If you, as a parent or an elderly person in the family, who children look up to, continue to be invested in your phone for hours together, you are setting a wrong example right there! If you yourself are failing to walk the talk, you cannot expect children to follow your orders and reduce the amount of time they spend on their phones. Thus, you must manage your phone addiction first to be able to manage your children’s addiction to phones.
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Introduce children to alternate activities:
What most parents fail to see as far as phone addiction among children is concerned is that one of the preliminary reasons behind this addiction is that children do not know what to do with their free time. Once they finish studying or playing with their friends, they still have free time in hand, which ends up being spent on the phone.
What better way of dealing with this than introducing children to engaging activities like reading, painting, and crafts? We at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok, one of the most trustworthy best school in Gurgaon, have seen that engaging kids in such activities not only helps with tapping on their creative side but also helps keep them away from the phone screens.
Summing up:
All this while, if you have been struggling to get your children off their phones, the tips shared in this blog post will definitely come to your rescue. Remember, the key here is to be consistent and patient. As you know, the path isn’t going to be an easy one, but the result will be definitely worth the effort. So, keep hold of the tips listed above and try to be at your patient best; we are sure you’ll very soon find your kids successfully treading out of their phone addiction.