Children Don’t Need Mobiles: The Best Gift Is Your Time With Them

According to statistical data, 89% of 13-year-old children in Spain already have a mobile phone, and almost 90% of them have access from a very early age to the electronic devices that their parents use. It is clear that we live in a digitized society, but children do not need mobile phones.

These data are evidenced in this study published in Aloma: Revista de Psicologia, Ciències de l’Educació i de l’Esport .  Internet, mobile phones, tablets and computers are a good tool for work, knowledge and connection with other people.

Now, every mother and father knows the fascination that these instruments arouse in children from a very early age. For this reason, it is common for us to give them many of those devices that, in some way, begin to determine the way in which they will interact with the world and with ourselves.

In this sense, it is therefore necessary to establish a balance, and always remember that the best gift we can offer a child is our time.

Children don’t need mobiles; they must grow in harmony with the world and what it offers them

It is not about restricting or censoring certain things as did, for example, Steve Jobs with his children by forbidding them to have contact with mobile phones, computers or tablets . Sometimes, the mere act of prohibiting generates in children more curiosity, more need. Hence, the essential thing is to allow them to grow in harmony knowing everything that the world can offer them.

And what is it that society and its closest contexts can give them?

Culture

Make your children have at their fingertips books to consult, that they can see, touch, smell … Make them real everyday companions.

Serves as a model

Get children used to seeing you read physical books. Do not make exclusive use of screens and electronic devices and be a good model to look at, since children do not need mobile phones.

Set schedules for each activity

Make sure that the use of the computer or video games is not something habitual. A few hours per week is enough.

The world does not happen on a computer screen

Children need to go out to play. They should enjoy their friends, who experience what it is to fall and get up, run through the field, touch an animal …

At what age can I buy a mobile for my son?

If at any time you have asked yourself this question, it is possibly because your children are pressuring you to do so. So, before taking the step, it is important that we reflect on these aspects.

• Buying a mobile requires an economic outlay that each family will have to assess if necessary. Also, if the child is mature and responsible enough to use it.
• Before acquiring these devices, we will have educated the children in this matter.
• The age at which we can give our children a phone will depend on whether the child understands the responsibility that this requires and the risks involved in the use of social networks, for example, as shown in this publication by Colegio Antares.

The most appropriate thing is that, in adolescence, children can use these devices in common areas of the house. You must always do so under parental control to manage your use of their profiles and the information they post.

Give them your time before electronic devices: children don’t need mobiles

The education of a child begins from the first day they come into the world. The routines that we offer them, the type of parenting, the type of affection and the type of discipline will determine the bond we have with them. The use of mobile phones and computers in their own rooms and behind closed doors can lead to many problems in adolescence, as this study published by the Fundación Telefónica in 2011 points out.

We run the risk of having hermetic children who understand the world only through their screens. In this way, they will lose the ability to communicate with us. Give them your time from an early age. Although it is clear that our work responsibilities do not always allow us to reconcile family and professional life, these dimensions are worth taking into account.

Tips for your child to grow up happy

• The time you share with your children must always be of quality. Disconnect mobile phones and go for a walk with them, listen to their concerns and concerns without judging, without sanctioning. Make use of positive reinforcement.
• Facilitate your child’s contact with society; sign him up for the sports he chooses. Offer him new subjects to discover: drawing, music, dance …

• A child involved in multiple stimuli is a child more interested in reality than the internet.
• New technologies are excellent tools for learning and discovery, but they shouldn’t take up 100% of your time; not even 50%.

Be an everyday role model in your children’s lives. To do this, show them the beauty of face-to-face human relationships. Help him discover sports, the pleasure of reading, of allowing himself to be free of mobile phones for hours to enjoy the here and now.