We always hear about making New Year resolutions. Recently, I ran across a great little article from Common Sense Media by Caroline Knorr and wanted to share it with you. Knorr gives some suggestions for things that can be done in the family to foster developing healthy media habits for both parents and children.
Here are Knorr’s suggestions:
- Commit to learning about one media item your kid is passionate about.
- Choose one night of the week to share YouTube videos with each other.
- Deal with one thing that’s most frustrating about your kid’s media/tech.
- Lead by example by putting down your phone at a certain time every evening.
- Put a new spin on the device-free dinner
- Start a book club (with your kids).
For the full article from Common Sense Media, please click here.
I would like to add two suggestions from a faith perspective.
7. Establish clear rules and boundaries for your child’s media use from early on. When I talk to teens about faith and media, I give out a media survey. One question I ask is what rules their parents have about media. I’m always surprised at how many parents have no rules when it comes to kids media use. Set clear rules from the moment your child can understand rules because it’s even harder to implement rules once media use has already begun.
8.Talk with your kids (age-appropriately) about the values present in the media they encounter. Every song, TV show, film, app, video out there has some kind of message. Is that message something you want your children to hear and internalize? Start by helping the kids identify the values present in media stories. Are they positive values like respect, kindness, forgiveness, sharing, or generosity? There are usually some negative ones, too, like violence, selfishness, greed, or bullying. Being able to identify and then talk about these values will help you steer your child to becoming a better follower of Jesus Christ.
May you and your family have a happy, healthy, and holy 2018.