Goodnight iPad

I have gotten a lot of responses and reactions to the Daily Dose on tech free meals. There are definitely many families who are concerned with the amount of time their children are connected to some form of electronics and how that is impacting talk time as well. Turning off the iPhone, Blackberry, iPad and whatever else is out there, may be challenging yet do-able. 

I had friends over to dinner recently who have older children and one of the young adults came along. She is in college and was home so joined us for dinner.  Somehow this topic came up yet again and she proudly announced that she gave up texting at meals for Lent!  Her mother was thrilled as well, as they had enjoyed lovely conversation at meals without any interruptions. 

I also continue to discuss screen time with families of all ages during their visits. Yesterday a cute mom came in for her new baby's check up (she has 2 older children as well). She too is concerned with the amount of time that her 5 and 7 year old children spend playing video games or watching movies. She told me that even though she had recently gotten a new car, she purposely bought one without a DVD player so that she did not have to have the argument around watching movies in the car!  Clever, huh?  Talking and singing in the car on the way to school or the store will be good for all of them and the baby will love hearing her siblings voices rather than Dora! 

Another young mother was recently in and brought me a present. She also has 3 children so we see quite a bit of each other. She had read my posts on tech free meals and brought me a book. When she took it out I did a double take as I read the title, because the cover looked exactly like Goodnight Moon(one of my all time favs). But, it was Goodnight iPad.  

She had purchased it in the airport as a gift for her older children. It is a parody of the book but it is right on and absolutely hysterical. I wish I had been so clever.  If you have not seen it and you have children of young ages or even older (I may give it as Easter basket gifts).  You need to check it out. No more Good Night Red Balloon, but rather Good Night MP3, Good Night WiFi.  I'm sure there are more out there. 

I wonder if I could write Pat the iPad? 

That's your daily dose for today.  We'll chat again tomorrow.