If you have children between the ages of 6 and 15, then the chances are that you know about Roblox. For everyone else, Roblox is a popular interactive online game platform for children. My kids might have an addiction.
I have been working with my wife to develop busy and educational activities for my three children to limit their time on Roblox. In this post, I will share with you our suggestions to pull your children away from their devices this summer.
I want you to think about how the next three sentences resonate with you.
If I allow my children to have it their way, they will spend hours in front of a computer or television. They will forget about eating lunch, playing outdoors, or reading books. My wife and I have had to create rules to restrict their screen time.
Does that sound familiar?
As a parent who works from home on some days, I do appreciate the quiet time that Roblox offers my house. When they are engaged in a game, they do not use me as their jungle gym and climb on my shoulders. My wife and I can focus on our work while keeping an eye on the children in the other room.
I reached another writing milestone this week. I finished another draft of my third book; my children’s obsession with Roblox gave me quiet time to concentrate on writing. Regardless of the productivity benefits that come with our electronic babysitters (televisions, computers, tablets, etc.), I don’t want them to spend their days in front of screens.
How do you feel about Roblox and other online games that keep your kids busy while you work? If you’re like me, then you have a love-hate relationship with these platforms.
The following are three ideas to pull your children away from their devices this summer.
1. Make it mandatory that your little ones read, write, or do something educational without technology before turning on the computer. Your children might resist this rule at first, but after a while, it will become a habit, and they will adjust to the rule. My kids know that if they want to play Roblox in the morning, they need to read a book, write a paragraph, and work on their Spanish language skills.
2. Require that your children go outside. If the weather and the environment allow for your children to go outdoors while observing social distance practices, make sure you enforce that they play in the yard without cellphones, tablets, or other electronic devices. You might have to join them to reinforce this house rule. I’ve been taking my kids on hikes and trips to the park to counter their time on Roblox.
3. Give them chores. I grew up in a home where helping to clean the house and maintain the yards were daily musts! Tell your children they must clean the yard, must wash dishes, must make their beds, must sweep the floors, or do something to earn the time to play their games. My three little ones must set the table for dinner, sweep the floor, and clean the deck every day God blesses their eyes to open!
None of these suggestions are easy. My wife and I continue to have our fair share of parenting challenges. When you are raising children, patience, grace, discipline, and a whole lota love are essentials to developing solid parenting skills. A firm stance is mandatory when they whine and cry about the rules; we've learned to take a deep breath and wait for compliance.
Check out this month’s vlog episode on YouTube for a visual of this post, alongside my advice for surviving COVID-19. Share the video and this blog post with one parent.
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