Hm. I was thinking a little while ago about the concept of taking away a beloved toy/tangible object such as the TV or Xbox to punish a misbehaving tot and thought, "Hm, this ultimately just perpetuates other ongoing problems, resulting in no results." Here's how...
Sure, sure the kiddo cries their little eyeballs out for the moment, but that soon passes. What replaces this is tiny idle hands introduced to large idle time. Uh-oh.
And after the punishment is over and whatever mayhem during the toy hiatus has ensued, they get the stuff back and gorge themselves on it. TV becomes their BF4Eva or the Xbox becomes their favorite robot with skinny noodle arms attached to bulbous, plastic hands that have buttons on them that the kids can push and make stuff happen on the screen. They get hooked even worse.
This, in turn, brings up a whole new problem of overuse of stuff. Sure, in my last post I lauded the video gaming world - and I still think video games help keep the mind from being terribly wasted - but everything should be done in moderation. I love McDonald's snack wraps with their chipotle bbq sauce, but do I eat them everyday? Yes. But, that's not the point. Point is, too much of something - for kids - is bad news.
Where was I? Oh yea, so now we have to once again take away the game/Xbox/snack wrap - not to punish, but to ween. Ween them away from overeating - as it were - on their technological babysitters.
It's a windy road. Uphill both ways. In the snow.
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