While we aren't completely off grid yet, and my partner and I both work jobs off the homestead, we have cut out many things that take up our time from our homestead, our Sawyer, and our couple time together.
One of them being:
.
.
.
.
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WE HAVE NEVER HAD TV OR INTERNET
The last thing that we want is to waste our time and money on something that fills our head with nonsense and introduces unhealthy lifestyle choices into our child's mindset.
That being said, we both have Iphones, and I have an ipad that I use my hotspot to connect to the web with while at home.
I do most of my steeming at work Shhhhhhh
Yesterday, Sawyer spent a few hours down the road at her grandmas house. While I am a lenient woman when it comes to people spending time with her... It made me feel uneasy when I came to pick her up to see her popped infront of the TV watching a garbage cartoon where a teen vampire found an evil doll from her childhood that forced her to have Tea parties all day. It was disturbing....
BUT I COULDN'T STOP WATCHING
That's the most unsettling thing. I'm a full grown woman...who on any given day has no interest in vampires, dolls, or tea parties but somehow I was getting drawn in.
So in hindsight what potential harm could that do to a child who is only 3?
So many parents especially young parents use TV as a crutch. You just plop your kid there and go about your chores. Sometimes I envy that, but I know every time Sawyer asks about our "baby" plants, or insists on doing the watering by herself that she is learning that the things you take time to nurture, grow.
I know that every time she trips and falls, she is gaining balance.
I know that when she picks up grubs, slugs and creepy bugs she is actually EXPERIENCING what it is to be a child.
Yes, chores take 3x as long, and most days there are failures and short comings.
But Sawyer is growing, and learning, and becoming more self sufficient.
She communicates better than almost all the kids her age and older at her school. She knows the life cycle of a butterfly.
She knows the difference between a spider, and a potato bug... because she has held and examined them both.
She knows an agate is a pretty rock and a maggot is a baby fly.
She knows these things because she is in part made of these things.
Instead of watching a scripted child actor pretend to have fun on a television.
These are my thoughts, but I WANT to hear yours!
Please comment how your child has benefited from growing up outside.
Do you have TV?
What about Internet?
As always, have a beautiful day! I appreciate you taking the time to read... and upvote if you think a TV-Less child is a healthy child!
I think it's a very valid and important conversation. Technology is creating the death of experience and technology addiction in the youngest of kids. Our children are going to live shorter lives than us. We are in the face of a full-flown global ecological crisis and we are depriving the next generation of the one thing that might make them give a duck (contact with nature).
We're also learning more and more from advances in psychology (thank you attachment theory!) about the importance of secure and loving relationships between children and parents if they aren't going to grow up with a sackful of issues.
And yet it's easier said than done, we're enmeshed in a mature (maybe even old-aged and about to kick the bucket) capitalist system that puts enormous strain on both parents to be out working to meet basic needs that once would have been a given part of a leisurely peasant life-style. In the west especially people are living more and more isolated from extended family and really do have to rely on the TV / tablet as a make-shift baby-sitter a lot of the time (totally understandable). It's not necessarily all that easy to simply opt out from the 9-5 capitalist game, depending on the sort of support and education you will have had in your life from friends and family. And if that is a viable decision, then it really does involve strong decisions that leave to the side certain luxuries and priveleges that may be cherished habits to many.
I guess I have an opinion about this a bit like vegetarianism. It's not black and white. It can be grey. If you can't be veggie all the time, cut down a bit and that makes a difference. So even if some people feel they can't cut technology out 100% maybe they can ring-fence places in the house or times of day that are "device-free".
Your post made me think of this meme I saw on FaceBook the other day. :)
That was my rambling two cents. :) Now back to work! <3
Wow! It sounds like you should be writing a blog post about it! (:
We are very lucky to be close to Family. I wasn't trying to discount that at all!
I agree that the children are in honest danger. The scariest part is that they will not know how to fend for themselfs, or even help provide if the illusion that is a food system in the US and in other places as well. Adults don't even know where food they eat comes from. (not to even mention FAST FOOD) Say, an adult family goes to the local grocery store to get produce every week. Then one day the refrigerated trucks stop coming... These people will not even realize what food they are ABLE to grow around them. They will expect dragon fruits and kiwis to be staples in the diet. To say the least it will be humbling.
As for the meme.... YESSSS! That is so true. You often hear young people judging others "my family won't be like that" "I will never let my kid do that"
With Facebook and other social media outlets it has caused a an eternal circle of attention for information. And people sit in front of their TV and watch Teen Mom and think that creating, or tolerating a hectic family situation is something that will get you pity... and attention. It's heart breaking to see people butting heads with each other. When they say "it takes a village" They aren't kidding. Children are curious and need to be exposed to as many healthy lifestyles as possible.
I'm writing a PhD about the wild food scene in Brazil, and I'm especially interested in the reasons have for foraging and the role that that serves in their lives. I think for urbanites an activity like foraging can have a lot of value in creating a "relationship" between themselves and the natural environment. It's an alternative to mindless consumerism, and yes, as you say, a lot of people are worried and with good reason that people are losing the skills and knowledge necessary to make it if the "system" breaks down. Certainly it has very much entered into the collective imagination through post-apocalyptic genres. A lot of people are waking up to what is being lost and are making the decisions in their own lives that bring us closer to nature and closer to ourselves.
Jeez, just reread that, how rambley and pretentious, he he.
Hahaha no worries (: I loved it!
your side of things is not going unheard!
I'm going to go ahead a follow you!
Mindless consumerism is such a great way to put it into words.
I think it's really interesting the psychology behind consumerism and also commodification (when something that used to not involve money is transformed into a commodity that you can buy). Like it's interesting the whole wild foods thing. These are things that people have gone out and collected no doubt since humans weren't even humans. Along with tracking animals it's one of our most ancient and time-honoured skills that we have as the human race. At it's heart it is consistently linked with notions of freedom from commercial logic. Yet as it becomes more and more popular people are increasingly interested in buying and selling. Since the 80s conservationists have been harping on about the potential of commercialising wild forest products in order to motivate people to preserve and conserve wild areas instead of liquidating them into immediate monetary assets via a chainsaw and truck. Yet if you impose the capitalist monetary values onto things that you used to value for their contribution to your diet, as being a leisurely activity, as being an opportunity to spend time outside in nature with your family, as being a sacred/spiritul activity etc etc. Is that simply an extra way of valuing these things that coexists and sits beside those other values, or does it oust all those other fluffy values to the side and force you to become solely focused on the money element? It seems like the modern human is obsessed with putting a price tag on everything, as though if you can't put a monetary price on it then it doesn't matter. But it seems like at the end of the day you end up with a society that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
These are things I sit thinking about!
I up voted. We do not have a tv either and we use the internet for work and research mostly. The garbage on tv these days is brainwashing our generation to not think for themselves. The word amusement in Latin literally means 'to not think'. I think that children needs hands-on experience like working in the garden and helping with household chores. My girl Becca is 2 and she already helps with chores and with the garden. She does not sit in front of the boob tube all day filling her mind with brainless information. Thanks for posting, I also re-esteemed this!
Thank you so much! I couldn't agree more. It's sad to see the next generation growing up to be in a box of endless "entertainment" and little to no critical thinking skills. I always joke that " she could survive the apocalypse" if something happened and I think that's true. She knows what wild plants she can east and what to stay away from, she is rough and tumble and not afraid of dirt. That's not exactly what you see when you see most kids.
Great for you! Keep up the great parenting!!! It's the harder route but the payout is so much better.
We got rid of our TV a few years back. Haven't missed it all.
Alas though, Youtube has rather taken its place as a 'passive entertainer' for our teenage children too much of the time.
Smartphones are only smart if used in a smart way.
Very true! It's hard to change a teenager from entertainment living to none at all. That would give anyone a culture shock.
I'm Excited for SteemQ to happen so the videos we choose to view are true to source, and have educational value. Its so hard to find anything on YouTube that's helpful.
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STOPI am so uncomfortable around TVs now! I've never bought one, and we've never had one in our house. We use the Internet for research and for writing, but that's about it AND WE LOVE IT THIS WAY.
My son is very little, but he knows what flowers, ants, and flies are. I love that he is going to grow up with a homestead to explore, not a cache of internet memes to quote.
I worked as an Environmental Educator for years, bringing urban kids on hikes and teaching them the things that the city never did. For many of them, through no fault of their own, they described going outside as "going in the garage." They didn't know about plants, animals, or anything living, really.
The things that your little girl knows as part of daily life were all new discoveries for my students (who were 10-15 years old).
I can't exactly say that I'm surprised at that. We used to live in a an apartment and it was such an excursion to get out anywhere close to nature, I can understand how it could easily disappear from peoples lives.
The reason that we are able to give her this life isn't by luck tho, we have had to WORK OUR ASSES OFF to get here. And I don't take it for granted at all!
Why did you stop working as an environmental Educator? How did you even get into a gig like that? That sounds like a dream!
Keep up the good work with your son! (: Keep it up!
Oh, I hope it was not implied that I was accusing you of taking it for granted! We feel like we had to go through a gauntlet to get out of the city too, and we are SO thankful. And a little tired ;).
I worked in a National Park as an Interpretive Guide for three years (it was an intern position, so it had a time limit) and LOVED it. Because of connections there, I then worked at a Nature Center in Cleveland( that one was a little tougher...I had 50 kids in a classroom at some points!!) I stopped because I moved to a different city, but I can't wait to teach the same things to my kids.
No no not at all (: Wow, that's truly amazing and a great calling that has been put aside more often than I think it should be!
High five for raising children who know nature the way it was intended!
HIGH FIVE INDEED!
So many of those kids broke my heart--after seeing so many poorly raised kids, I just want to raise my own well.
Exactly! You have seen what lazy parenting can do, and you know how to avoid it . The fact that you are concerned already shows so much promise.