When I was out with a girlfriend the other day she was telling me about a movie “So This Is 40”. You may have seen it, it was out in 2012, but I had never even heard of it. She suggested I watch it given that I am now 40, (if you missed that then check out my previous posts and see what I got up to). Anyway my friend played me a preview and there is a scene where the parents try to reduce wifi usage and limit screen time with their daughters. The mum suggests the kids build a fort, which the older daughter is completely horrified by, check out the clip HERE.

So I figured why not? It has been school holidays here and my children were on week three and so I suggested ‘let’s build a fort’! Adam (age 6) was super excited and totally pumped up for this awesome idea he was off grabbing cushions and blankets like The Flash!

Go Adam!

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The girls just kind of looked at me with a weird expression. So I gave them some encouragement;

“Come on it will be heaps of fun, we will turn the whole upstairs lounge into a fort, we’ll get torches and even have a picnic lunch in it!”

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The proceeded to look at me strange and then told me that they actually had to go clean up the bunny hutches! What????? Are they seriously telling their mother they would rather clean up poop than build a fort?!!! 

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I mean I get the bunnies are cute and all, but what about fun with mummy?

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Yes that is what they were saying, off they went to clean the bunny hutches! Adam and I had an absolute blast building our fort, although the girls banned us from using their bedding. April (age 9), came upstairs to view our fort and her response was “don’t expect me to clean that up, you make the mess you clean it up!” Really? Where does she get that from?

The girls then decided to do some baking and actually made a really delicious Angel Cake, and I told them “you make the mess in the kitchen, you clean it up.”

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Adam and I played for a fair while and even had our picnic, but after some time he wanted to play his Nintendo 3DS and so I gave in and I started checking emails and scrolling on Instagram. Here we were in our fort and we ended up back on our devices. Is it just a hopeless cause? Does our life just completely revolve around wifi or screen time now? And is it really so bad?

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I agree with people who say we do live on our devices too much, we all need a little less screen and a little more face to face human contact. I also think that we shouldn’t check our devices as soon as we wake up or before we go to bed, we need to unwind and so do our children. But is it all bad?

Like I said my kids have been on holidays for almost 3 weeks and they have done loads of things, they’ve been on outings, they’ve played with their pets, had friends sleep over, been out with friends, been away, gone swimming, read heaps of books, baked and played board games. But they have also played on their devices. Does it make me a terrible parent to say I don’t actually mind? Should I feel really guilty about it?

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The thing is I don’t think it has been so bad, when they play minecraft they all join in together in their world (don’t ask me to explain as I don’t play it), but somehow the 3 of them are in the same world even though they are on different devices. They all lay on Aspen’s big bed and I hear them chatting and laughing so loudly as they play, to me it is siblings having a great time, bonding and hanging out, isn’t that a good thing? They have also had battles on the Wii U and again they are all playing together and having fun (with the odd person getting mad, usually Adam lol), but for the most part they are giggling and really enjoying playing with one another.

There are times where they are playing by themselves too, but it’s not all day everyday and if I say time to hop off it they do. Do we worry too much about the time they spend on devices? I think like most things it’s about balance, if our children are happy, active, healthy, social, and exercising and eating well then is some screen time a problem? I agree that children need outside time, face to face time, time to draw, read, and play sport, they need to use their imaginations and  learn how to be part of the real world, but technology is part of our lives whether we want it to be or not. If it is balanced out with all the other things children need then I think it will be OK.

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What are your thoughts on technology and our children? Do you let your kids play games on devices? Love to hear your feedback.

Thanks for joining me, love Mackenzie xx

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Check out my 90’s Tag! 

It’s #mg link up time!

 

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 Last weeks most clicked upon post was the fabulous Karen from Two Tiny Hands, with her post The Annoying Things That Bloggers Do!

My pick of the week was Jennifer Wolfe from mamawolfe with Aren’t You Tired Of Seeing People Die? I really recommend you read this post! 

OK Time for the fun now, look forward to reading your posts, love mg xx

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Disclaimer: No children or bunnies were harmed during the writing of this blog, but the cake was totally demolished!!! Well in our defence, it did taste utterly delicious!

Aspen giggling during our ‘look annoyed at mummy” photo shoot

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Pink Pear Bear

Mummascribbles