Parenting: 15 Tips to Curb kids` Internet Addiction in 11 days

Internet addiction, Phone obsession, technology dependency. Whatever you want to call it, a lot of parents are worried that their kids are becoming dependent on their gadgets. It seems quite hard to keep them away from devices when their consciousness is completely deepened in electronic devices. Their excessive usage might put their lives in trouble unknowingly.

The Internet is helpful for each human being, but when it comes to its side effects. It has a vast impact on humans.

Mostly, parents find it difficult to keep their children away from such gadgets due to their changed behavior when they respond with backlash. When it comes to children, once they get addicted to it, their whole brain drags them again and again to the internet because they find it reliable and comfortable.

Various studies have shown that IA has negative effects on school-aged children, including poor eating behaviors, anxiety, inactivity, sleep problems, increased stress, loneliness, and social anxiety.

So here I’m going to pin down some easy but doable tips to prevent your kids from internet addiction. The list goes like this:

1. Make a timetable for their daily activities. Encourage them to follow it.
2. It may look weird, but pay a visit to their bedrooms.
3. Motivate them to learn through activities and express your interest in them.
4. Ask them to give you a hand with house chores.
5. Do fun(playing video games) together.
6. Elders usually love kids.
7. Play areas, zoo, parks, and Beaches: Places of fun and entertainment.
8. When it comes to e-gadgets, just change passwords and screen lock
9. Schoolmates = real-life friends.
10. Kids adore pets.
11. Buying groceries and household goods? Take them with you.
12. Can’t solve Math problems? Offer your help.
13. Primary learning tools.
14. “How was your day at school?”
15. Create play areas within your house boundary.

1. Make a timetable for their daily activities and encourage them to follow it.

It is no surprise that a daily schedule for kids helps kids live more effectively. Children sometimes have the desire to avoid new or unfamiliar things, which can be uncomfortable. A regular schedule for children helps ease their anxiety and provides them with a sense of normality, confidence, and comfort. However, you need to prepare simple tasks for your child. Even something as simple as washing their hands before eating can give them a sense of confidence and independence because they can see it and do it on their own.

Making them habitual of doing things on their own might take some time but in the end, it’s productive.

2) It may look weird, but pay a visit to their bedrooms.

This may seem unsatisfactory, but you should keep checking their rooms. What do they do in their rooms all day, and with what gadgets do they spend time?

Most kids usually spend time with computers and laptops while others with their smartphones. So what do they search for online? Have you ever checked that?

For that, you should be a spy or detective sometimes and ask what sort of content they look for.

This is for sure an inappropriate act but letting them know that you are frequently checking on them might get their acts on track and they may get conscious about your act of spying on them.

Through this, your kids will avoid making unnecessary approaches on the internet.

3) Motivate them to learn through activities and express their interest in them.

Sometimes it happens that kids do any activity that pleases them, and they gradually develop keen desire to perform such activities. For instance, their son is enjoying helping you out in your car garage, so there you should be friendly with him. Stand by him and praise him morally.

Kids barely show a desire for doing any work at home and if this is happening to encourage them and they will do more. If your kid likes your wood crafting work, hand him a seesaw or hammer and see how he performs it with joy.

These sort of activities done by you encourages them too. Your kid will learn everything in the future if he does that now with you.

4)Ask them to give you a hand with house chores.

Although they are immature today, they won’t always be so. When your children finally start living on their own, they’ll need to be able to manage their finances, do their laundry, and cook. Also, these are things that are not fully taught in schools, making it even more necessary to learn them at home. So, asking them to help you out in the house can help you out, and also they would be away from internet addiction. Through this, they will learn some important skills that will be useful in their lives.

5) Do fun together; Play videos or watch movies.

When it comes to Fun time and co-curricular activities let them choose what they want to play. These make children active and healthy mentally and physically.

Give your child the chance to practice skills and get better at things like running, jumping, climbing, and catching a ball. Engage them in indoor activities like making shapes on the ground, lying on the grass for searching insects, night searching for moving stars or watching videos, etc, and do much more fun to make them fresh.

6)Elders usually love kids.

Functions of schools. Group sports. Youth organizations. There are various techniques to encourage social connection for kids and teenagers. But does your family promote making time for elderly people in your life? If not, they will miss out.

According to studies, interaction benefits both young people and the elderly. Information also shows that people of all ages like the company of the elderly and youngsters.

Love of elders for their kids is soothing which helps kids to catch emotional attachment and gain valuable time. In this way, kids can stay away from internet addiction and spend prime time with their Grandparents.

7) Parks, Zoos, Hiking Trails, and Beaches: Places of Entertainment

Spending time outside the home and with nature is known as an outdoor activity. It has a great effect on human psychology. All age groups of people enjoy these activities. Outdoor activity is an essential part of your child’s health and success, both physically and mentally. It’s natural for kids to want to move their muscles outside, whether it’s swimming, running, dancing, skateboarding, or simply taking a walk. Not only will it help your child explore their imagination, creativity, and nature, but it’s just a bundle of fun.

Your kids will flourish mentally and physically when they find themselves outside the home enjoying leisure time. This is a beneficial way of keeping your kids away from electronic gadgets with access to the internet.

8) When it comes to e-gadgets, change the passwords and screen locks.

Keeping kids safe from the harmful side of the internet is a difficult task. So in a world where smartphones offer unmonitored access to everything from graphic adult content to gambling sites. Set privacy on electronic devices and also block those sites which can share inappropriate content.

But still, you will find kids breaching Wi-Fi passwords and unlocking the changed screen locks of your devices, and getting access to websites easily. So, it is necessary to just change the passwords.

In this way, their habit of being attached to the internet might decline slowly and you will see their return to a casual and healthy daily routine without mobile attachment.

9) Schoolmates = Real-life Friends

A person is so lucky to have real-life friends, one of them could be a schoolmate. For children It is quite difficult to make new friends at school, so here is the parent’s responsibility to teach their children how they can make new friends at school. Teach them that schoolmate is their real-life friends, allow them to play with their friends, and let them go outside with their friends but must keep a close eye on them. They can learn those things from their friends which they cannot learn from electronic gadgets or the internet. Such as solving real-life problems.

Furthermore, they feel pride that there is someone who is always there to help them out. If parents are going for outdoor activity, such as going to the park then you must keep your children with you along with their friends, so that they might spend some time together. Spending time with friends is far better than using electronic gadgets. In this way, their engagement with their friends will provide them a valuable time together. This is how they will be away from mobile and internet addiction.

10)Kids adore pets.

Many pieces of research have shown that kids show more interest in family pets than other things because these are a source of happiness for them. Kids become happier when playing with pets. They can learn more and more from pets such as positive relationships with pets can increase self-esteem and make them more confident.

So it’s a great opportunity for parents to easily convert the concentration of kids from electronic gadgets and the internet to pets. Parents must have to keep family pets for kids and tell them that now it’s their responsibility to look after the pets.

For kids, having a pet has a lot of beneficial social and emotional impacts. Direct interaction with pets like cats or dogs helps increase a child’s confidence. They may feel more responsible if they engage in habits like walking the dog or feeding the fish. Also, pet play can help people feel less stressed and anxious. When taking care of a pet, children also learn how to “nurture,” which is the act of caring for others. They create a bond with their pet by caring for it and helping with its care, which is an essential component of social and emotional growth.

11) Buying Groceries and Household Goods? Take them with you

Parents must take help from their children for their activities because it makes them more confident, asking for their opinions creates respect and a positive attraction for their parents and also creates a sense of pride for themselves. Take them with you when you’re going for outdoor activity, especially when going to buy household goods, give preference for their choices, and feel that they are the buyers, not you. These are great opportunities to teach and realize their responsibilities.

While making decisions, ask for their opinions, and realize that they are great achievers and that their opinions are of great value.

12) Can’t solve Math Problems? Offer your help.

Online learning has left many children with problems in learning particularly in mathematics. They might be struggling but you as a parent can offer your help to your child in solving math problems. Parents can get help from their prior knowledge; if it is still challenging, you can get assistance from online videos. Watch them yourself and then teach them to your child more appropriately and easily.

Make him believe that you are figuring it out together. In this way, your child will get the attention of parents and could solve his/her problem without approaching any technological gadget. They will understand you are taking interest in their school tasks and your support would increase their emotional attachment on the other hand their dependency on e-gadgets to solve school tasks will fade away.

13)Primary learning tools.

Primary learning tools are usually those charts, badge builders, banners, and themed posters which are used to motivate and reward learners and also to engage them in learning with a more enjoyable method. It may include printable games for spelling and word building.

These primary learning tools are mainly aimed at giving skills and confidence to enjoy learning. These tools can stimulate young minds and help them get involved in lessons.

It will not only help in a child’s mental development but also in keeping him/her away from using technological gadgets. Primary tools for learning will help your children in learning without being distracted by the internet.

14) “How was your day at school?”

Children experience a new world outside when they go to school. They experience making friends, interacting with teachers, and adjusting themselves to a school environment. As a parent, you want your children to have experiences on their own but also want to know what is going on in their life at school.

Parents need awareness of the joys, new things, and also difficulties that their child experiences in school; for that, start a conversation with your children to know how they spent their whole day at school. Start with a very simple question:

• Who did you sit with during recess for lunch?
• What did you read in class?
• What was your favorite thing about your day at school?

Asking these questions will engage children in thinking about their life experiences and physical activities occurring in their surroundings. This type of conversation with your children can develop a sense of observation in your kids and they will gradually start focusing on the natural and physical world around them which will consequently lead them to distance themselves from the internet or digital devices.

15)Create Play Yards within your house boundary.

A play yard according to Merriam Webster “ is a piece of land used for and usually equipped with facilities for recreation, especially by children. Create a play area in your home, design it on your own or you can buy it from a store. Choose a safe and feasible place within your house boundaries and equip it with different resources for games, for instance, some swings or slides.

You can add a sand pit. In this way, parents can create a play area for their children at home that will help them provide play opportunities as well as multi-sensory play opportunities. It will further help in sensory motor development in kids.

Healthy activities like this come with multiple benefits. It will help parents in saving time and engage their children in physical activity rather than the idle activity of using gadgets the whole day. It is, no doubt, the most refreshing and enjoyable activity for your children to keep away from digital devices and their spell-binding attraction.

My suggestion on it.

Though it’s inappropriate to suddenly react to kids because they do not like sudden reactions in contrast for kids internet addiction is like a disease, which is only cured by avoiding nothing else. By following the above tips, it may be easy to take away from internet addiction. if your kids are addicted to the internet then you must immediately follow the above tips.