"Words with Friends" is the only game I play on Facebook, so this caught my eye, but it's the second story they share that really caught my attention.
The internet is as addictive as COCAINE! YIKES!
So, what do you do to limit your time online?
Just last night, after I got home from the library, the Warden and I came up with a plan for our house. This was before I even saw the above link. I hope our new arrangement doesn't backfire on us. I got into the online parental controls for our internet service and made it so that only one machine in the house has internet after 9:15pm. The internet turns back on at 6am. With one little handheld machine, we turned it off altogether.
So, what do you do at your house to curb your addiction? I'd love to have some input on this one.
3 comments:
I set up our firewall to block access to the Internet for the kids' computers every night at midnight. When they're ready to have time on the computer, (chores and homework done, etc) we turn it on either for the rest of the evening or with a time limit after which it'll cut off again.
They can still get to our home network so they can send and receive email, get to their files and a few things all the time.
With hand-held devices like cell phones and tablets on the rise, though, they are going to be plugged into the Internet all the time more and more. A definite challenge to help them learn balance.
And thanks for writing this, Julie. My kids are convinced we're the only parents who would put limits on computer/internet time.
We have controls too. The younger kids have a limited amount of time each week that they can use and if they need more for school work, etc. they have to get Dad to give them more. The older kids have a little more freedom-- not much and it gets checked regularly. I'm not sure of the exact program that we use ( the IT guy knows :) I know that he gets a report of usage, etc. So far, it works pretty well :) Now if we could limit Mom's time wasting on the computer! :)
This is a little bit trickier for us. School is online, so they/we are on the computer every day.
We have made rules that there is no extra computer time (mostly netflix and PBSkids, big kids have FB and email) until all of the school work is done. If kiddos are caught dabbling during school time then privileges are lost for predetermined amount of time.
It has been a little bit easier to check on their progress since preston is able to remote into all the other computers here at home. He can have a "surprise inspection" at any time. The kids have lost privileges, esp a certain child who gets easily distracted and thinks he wont ever get caught. They have learned that it is better for dad to catch them doing school and keep privileges.
We have a "no cell phone" rule during school hours. This is an ongoing challenge. We constantly remind a certain child that the phone wouldnt be allowed in a classroom, so it is not allowed during our "classroom" hours either. Sometimes those hours are varied, but when school is in session the phone is off limits.
We also try extra hard to limit extra computer time to 30 min or 1 show. The kids are given other activity choices like the playroom or reading or books, etc. We live in such a techno age, it seems that kiddos forget how to really play and pretend and do all those things we did growing up. I try to remind them that those are good things too.
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