Guiding our children

he world we live in is so full of possibilities and so full of opportunities that we sometimes forget everything around us and submerge ourselves in a fantasy. Being realistic is nearly impossible in today’s time. We have these gadgets in our lives for everything. You have to navigate the road with the Global Positioning System (GPS), and I wish there was a GPS app to navigate life as well.

Today we see smartphones in the hands of toddlers to keep them busy, and then I wonder how they will develop a real aptitude for real things. If a child is always living with a smart gadget in hand, his brainwaves will definitely send different signals around. No one wants to lag behind in this competitive world, but there are still so many important and life altering issues in the world. How do we introduce children to the real world with real situations?

I read so many articles on how today’s children might have 400 friends on a social networking site, but not even a real friend to share things with, or how today’s children are so selfconscious to always be the centre of attraction.

We cannot let technology take over our minds and souls, we have to have a balanced life to sustain the future. We need to have healthy minds and bodies to bring up healthy babies in the world. I don’t think they should be given smart devices as soon as they come into this world. It might be easy for us as parents, but it might be difficult for their developing minds to comprehend what is real or what is surreal. Many might agree with me and many of you won’t, but we still need to analyse the question: When and at what age do we introduce technology in the lives of our children? Let’s start that discussion before it’s too late.