Parents and Mobile Kids: Part 1, The Positives
Outside of game systems and High School Musical, it seems that mobiles have arisen to being near the top of the list for many kids. They see the ability to text, game, personalize, and connect online as being fruitful elements to how they enjoy childhood. Their parents might even see mobiles as an extended safety net, a means to teach sound financial principles, or an area that their kids need to show maturity before being given a rope.
No matter how parents and their kids are seeing mobility, both groups understand that its not a question of "if" kids will get their mobile life rolling, but "when" and "how" will it effect parents and themselves
So lets talk some about the benefits: applicable communication and technical skills building, grace versus allowance, and sound financial discipline.
The biggest benefit of a child getting involved with mobile communications today has to do with the immediate future value. Sorry parents, the way you communicate is a lot slower and more antiquated than how your kids will. Engaging them towards using mobile devices and services now prepares them for that soon to come paradigm shift when they are leading things. Besides just learning the technology, they are learning it as it relates to how they communicate with others, and this is a decisive advantage over any other media and lessons that they could be learning right now.
Another benefit has to do with the idea of setting boundaries, or what I like to call "grace versus allowance." As we learn as adults, there are many things that God has given us the grace to be able to do and achieve. At the same time, there are many roads we have wandered due to our ignorance that God has allowed us to travel, and may later have proved to be valuable lessons to share with others later. Mobile devices and technology can become a speaking point for you (parent) and a learning point for them (children) towards these areas of grace and allowances that lead them into a better understanding of how to fit within the world around them.
The last lesson is probably the most important, the issue of financial discipline. Mobile devices can be used as a jumping board for teaching sound financial discipline. For example, if a youth wants a mobile device, you ask them to research it. Having done that, you then ask them if they can afford it? If not, you ask them how they can go about purchasing this with what skills they are able to do (chores, outside work, etc.). You then get into teaching how to give and save, with the mobile device as the backdrop to this lesson. If there is a mobile phone involved, you can use the idea of putting money on a pre-paid mobile plan (I never would recommend a youth do a post-paid mobile, its pain for the parent). Using the model of pre-pay, you can teach them the difference between credit and debit budgeting, giving them a heads-up when they get into college and are bombarded with credit-only marketing.
This is a lengthy topic and so please stay tuned to part two (Wednesday) where we will talk about the negatives and an appropriate view of this technology with our changing times.
Labels: children, discipliship, education, Internet, mobility, parenting, Parents and Mobile Kids
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