Current Events > Parents are sad that their kids are gaming/using social media during pandemic

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/health/covid-kids-tech-use.html

The day after New Years, John Reichert of Boulder, Colo., had a heated argument with his 14-year-old son, James. Ive failed you as a father, he told the boy despairingly.
During the long months of lockdowns and shuttered schools, Mr. Reichert, like many parents, overlooked the vastly increasing time that his son was spending on video games and social media. Now, James, who used to focus his free time on mountain biking and playing basketball, devotes nearly all of his leisure hours about 40 a week to Xbox and his phone. During their argument, he pleaded with his father not to restrict access, calling his phone his whole life.

That was the tipping point. His whole life? said Mr. Reichert, a technical administrator in the local sheriffs office. Im not losing my son to this.

Before the pandemic, Dr. Briasoulis 8-year-old son, Jesse, sometimes used his fathers old iPad Pro. During the pandemic, he got an iPad mini and so did his 6-year-old sister.
And we got a Nintendo Switch because everybody got a Switch, Dr. Briasouli said. Some days, she said, she watches her son sit with three devices, alternating play among them.

The family dog died on New Years Eve and James said that playing games with his friends helped him to not think about the loss. This concerned his mother, Kathleen Reichert, who felt that her son was escaping the emotions of real life.
What are you going to do when youre married and stressed? Tell your wife that you need to play Xbox? she said to her son during the interview.
As a new semester started, the parents put new rules into effect: no Xbox or phone during the weekdays for at least a few weeks, and their use will have to be earned for the weekends, through chores. Ms. Reichert feels wrenched by the whole thing.
Before the pandemic, James had so many options, she said, adding: Now, it makes me feel badly when I try to restrict him. Its his only socialization.

It sucks but lol that's what life is right now. They'll be fine.

Getting upset that the kid dealt with loss by playing a video game is stupid.

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Parents are sad

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Fuck boomers

kbelfisBACK posted...

Fuck boomers

Lol same thing I thought when reading the headline

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Darmik posted...

The family dog died on New Years Eve and James said that playing games with his friends helped him to not think about the loss. This concerned his mother, Kathleen Reichert, who felt that her son was escaping the emotions of real life.

She's a fucking idiot.


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Its not like they can go and socialize with other kids right now so I dont see what the big deal is.

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Sir Will posted...

She's a fucking idiot.

I seriously don't get it. What does she want him to do? Cry in his room?

When my Mum died I played a whole bunch of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and it was the perfect thing I needed to calm me down during the time. Fuck that lady.

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I mean, people can still mountain bike. It's not exactly a crowded activity.
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Sad!

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A lot of people's 'whole life' is their fucking access to socialization which is unfortunately limited to online in a lot of cases
Even in the school I was asked to work with the vice principal in helping them explain how internet is literally going to be used by the kids to keep in touch with one another to the parents who were pretty much 'INTERNET IS BAD'
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Captain_Qwark posted...

40 hours a week is a bit much for a kid even during covid

The "my whole life is my video games/phones" is the most concerning part

That's a future CEmen just waiting to happen

I agree and it sucks but honestly what else are they supposed to do? Parents have got to think of some alternatives to keep them busy and if nothing is available of course that's what they're gonna drift to.

If the parents are just working or watching TV then they're really not any better.

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They can restrict how much time he's on those devices, but taking it all away for non-academic reasons doesn't sit right with me.

The parents should try doing activities with their child.

I also find it somewhat weird to pressure a 14 year old about marriage and stress. They don't think about those kinds of things.

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A big problem is schools are trying to teach the kids the full schedule.
It's not possible to do more than 3-4 hours and retain it. Then they have homework which againt needs a laptop/tablet

So like a kid has about 10 hours for school online
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Captain_Qwark posted...

40 hours a week is a bit much for a kid even during covid

The "my whole life is my video games/phones" is the most concerning part

That's a future CEmen just waiting to happen

Almost the entirety of socilzation is online now. Get with the times or you'll end up like the shitty parents who throw their kids out of the house for hours at a time.

So they would rather have them partying and catching Covid?

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That last bit is just lulzy to the nth degree. Its perfectly fine to tell your spouse that youre stressed, upset, etc. and just want some alone time to play games or do whatever your hobby is.

Boomers need to wake up and realize the world doesnt function like it did when they were growing up.

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They should be watching TV and posting Facebook memes like goddamn adults

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Ive been averaging like 12 hours a day screen time on my phone lately. What else do they expect their kids to do right now? If there was ever a time in history to play video games and binge watch television, its now.

Cheater87 posted...

So they would rather have them partying and catching Covid?

Tbh I don't think they know what they want. They are pessimistic that this will all ruin their kids futures which honestly is just a bit silly to me.

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Some parents are just like this. My step dad limited me to three hours a day of video games or internet unless I was watching sports. The Hank Hill experience if you wanna be specific.

I had a friend who essentially dropped out of school to play vidya, and hes now a drifter addicted to ketamine so I almost get it, but I dont think these parents really do.

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Darmik posted...

I seriously don't get it. What does she want him to do? Cry in his room?

When my Mum died I played a whole bunch of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and it was the perfect thing I needed to calm me down during the time. Fuck that lady.

When I found out my dad died I did a pretty solid play session of MGS2. It's how I deal with shit like that. Get focused on a video game so I can get my thoughts in order

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What dumbasses. Even if they have concerns going that extreme during a period of intense emotional aungish and a global pandemic that largely eliminates most other options other then video games/smart devices.

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oh noooo the horror. what you want to bet the parents are lazy and don't offer alternatives besides

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I remember in high school my dad cut my ethernet cord with a scissors because he thought I was playing games too much. So I took it over to my friends house and he spliced the wires back together in his dads workshop. My dad was too impressed by that to cut it again, lol.

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These are the exact same parents who then get on Facebook and yell about Q and 5G

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Captain_Qwark posted...

Wat

Never seen parents lock their kids outside? People do it. It might have made some sense in the 70s and 80s, but now no one with an ounce of sense is letting their kids just wander the neighborhood.

Captain_Qwark posted...

Wander the neighborhood is a bit different than play outside but i don't know where/when you grew up

What is there to do outside, especially if you're an only child and there are no other kids outside? I grew up in a rural town in the late 90s/early 2000s and basically no one played outside. My own mother forbid me from walking further than my immediate next door neighbor's house while my father would complain that I just stayed in my room all the time lol. He would talk about how when he was a kid (in the 70s in a bustling suburb), he'd be outside all day roaming around town. He had zero idea that kids didn't just hang out like that anymore.

By all means, it's not a bad idea to do stuff outside sometimes, but you can't just lock kids out and demand they make do. That makes the parents assholes who refuse to acknowledge that the world has changed.

Man, even *I* spend a lot of time on my phone and I'm fucking homeless.

There's just not a whole lot of options for some people when it comes to keeping entertained.
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When my kid grows up the plan is to definitely go out for a family trip once a week. Along with extracurricular activities that interest her. Hopefully that's a good balance and hopefully there's no pandemics by then lol.

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Captain_Qwark posted...

Why is it 1 extreme or the other in your world?

I love technology and my kids will probably be super into it

I'm still going to restrict how much time they spend on devices and make them play outside once in a while.

There are tons of things to do outside. Especially as a family. If your parents just threw you outside with no treehouse or basketball hoop or trampoline, or bicycle then I'm sorry your parents were really shitty.

I literally didn't say it was one or the other? Maybe you should re-read the end of my post. You have to provide things or enable activities for kids to do outside if you want them to be out there. You seem to have taken an antagonistic stance to what I said when we seem to agree.

Just be realistic about how you restrict their technology and don't be a hypocrite about it. If you limit your kids to two hours of screen time but sit in front of a TV for six hours a day, you're being hypocritical.

The people in the original article seem to have no real plan for the kids' activities beyond thinking that technology is "the problem" and it just comes off as extremely outdated.

Also, yes, honestly, my parents were shitty. They had wildly conflicting views on parenting (my mother basically did everything she could to keep me in my room/restrict me from socializing while my father would scream at me for playing games in my room on a Saturday while I maintained straight As in school and literally never got into trouble). That's why I find your assertion that I desire "one extreme or the other" particularly baffling when I've been advocating for a happy medium the whole time, but it's very easy to misconstrue things through text.

As a kid, I desperately wanted to do things outside and socialize. I tried going to a friend's house to hang out and my mother constantly shut it down for ever shifting reasons (and again, this is while my father was chastising me for being a shut-in). That's not unlike the situation kids today are facing. They can't go out and socialize for various reasons, so it's shifted to the online world (and yes that means their phones and computers). The parents are being unreasonable by not acknowledging this.

I guess these boomer parents would prefer their kids to wallow in despair and boredom or go full maga and join the protests

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kbelfisBACK posted...

Fuck boomers

Teh_Dr_Phil posted...

Boomers need to wake up and realize the world doesnt function like it did when they were growing up.

SPE posted...

I guess these boomer parents would prefer their kids to wallow in despair and boredom or go full maga and join the protests

Assuming these 8 and 14 year olds aren't adopted, these parents would have to be in their 30s or 40s, 50s at most. So they'd be Gen X or Millennials.

Darmik posted...

Ive failed you as a father,

What a fucking drama queen
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Raikuro posted...

Assuming these 8 and 14 year olds aren't adopted, these parents would have to be in their 30s or 40s, 50s at most. So they'd be Gen X or Millennials.

Boomer seems to be more a mentality now lol

Sounds like these parents have the right idea.

Darmik posted...

I seriously don't get it. What does she want him to do? Cry in his room?

When my Mum died I played a whole bunch of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and it was the perfect thing I needed to calm me down during the time. Fuck that lady.

Comments like these remind me people today want a cognitive dissonance about how prior generations lived. Life used to involve doing crafts, putting together puzzles, learning skills, spending time talking and playing card / board games with others, creative works like drawing, coloring or writing, or even just plain old fashioned make believe. These days you can't completely cut out screen time for all of these, but there are options other than facebook and x-box.

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lightwarrior78 posted...

Comments like these remind me people today want a cognitive dissonance about how prior generations lived. Life used to involve doing crafts, putting together puzzles, learning skills, spending time talking and playing card / board games with others, creative works like drawing, coloring or writing, or even just plain old fashioned make believe. These days you can't completely cut out screen time for all of these, but there are options other than facebook and x-box.

A lot of people do their crafts with a screen. Get with the times and accept that "the old way" isn't the only way.

Kathleen Reichert, who felt that her son was escaping the emotions of real life.
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These breeders are nuts.

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Darmik posted...

who used to focus his free time on mountain biking

what stopped this?

zado19 posted...

what stopped this?

To be fair if it's something he did with friends and he can't meet up with them anymore that can make him lost a lot of motivation for him to go out and bike ride.

Of course that's where a parent can come in and do more than whining that they're failing.

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Darmik posted...

no Xbox or phone during the weekdays for at least a few weeks

Smart parents, Keep em off the FAQs too.

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_Rinku_ posted...

Never seen parents lock their kids outside? People do it. It might have made some sense in the 70s and 80s, but now no one with an ounce of sense is letting their kids just wander the neighborhood.

Lol. I use to wander the neighborhood. Left in the morning and my parents didnt see me again till the street lights came on.

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Darmik posted...

To be fair if it's something he did with friends and he can't meet up with them anymore that can make him lost a lot of motivation for him to go out and bike ride.

Of course that's where a parent can come in and do more than whining that they're failing.

true i guess

BeyondWalls posted...

Lol. I use to wander the neighborhood. Left in the morning and my parents didnt see me again till the street lights came on.

If you grew up in the 2000s, your parents are very fortunate that no busybodies called CPS on them.

_Rinku_ posted...

I literally didn't say it was one or the other? Maybe you should re-read the end of my post. You have to provide things or enable activities for kids to do outside if you want them to be out there. You seem to have taken an antagonistic stance to what I said when we seem to agree.

Just be realistic about how you restrict their technology and don't be a hypocrite about it. If you limit your kids to two hours of screen time but sit in front of a TV for six hours a day, you're being hypocritical.

The people in the original article seem to have no real plan for the kids' activities beyond thinking that technology is "the problem" and it just comes off as extremely outdated.

Also, yes, honestly, my parents were shitty. They had wildly conflicting views on parenting (my mother basically did everything she could to keep me in my room/restrict me from socializing while my father would scream at me for playing games in my room on a Saturday while I maintained straight As in school and literally never got into trouble). That's why I find your assertion that I desire "one extreme or the other" particularly baffling when I've been advocating for a happy medium the whole time, but it's very easy to misconstrue things through text.

As a kid, I desperately wanted to do things outside and socialize. I tried going to a friend's house to hang out and my mother constantly shut it down for ever shifting reasons (and again, this is while my father was chastising me for being a shut-in). That's not unlike the situation kids today are facing. They can't go out and socialize for various reasons, so it's shifted to the online world (and yes that means their phones and computers). The parents are being unreasonable by not acknowledging this.

Makes me wonder how your parents ever got along to begin with. Are they currently divorced?