Digital Parenting

A new dimension has recently been added to parenting. Up until now, it was well defined by good nutrition, good exercise, good education and good moral values, all delivered and packaged into instructions, handed over to us by our previous generations. As parents, we know what is right for our children and all that was needed was involvement and lots of love and care to build upon each of these dimensions, uniquely catered to our child’s needs, in an environment hand picked by us. And now comes the ‘digital’ world. Suddenly we have something that was not handed down to us by our parents. In fact, our children are savvier and more connected via the digital world than we are. More than any other generation has ever been. They have an immense exposure to information, technology and social media such as email, chat, networking and buzz. So now parenting has a whole new dimension – Digital Parenting.

          My brother was surprised to see me – a completely non techy person, so involved in facebook and other social networking sites. Come to think of it, how do we really make major decisions in the lives of children? Consider buying a house. We first short list a few houses based on our research. We drive around the neighborhood to get feel for the environment. We then meet some neighbors to understand the ‘culture’ so to speak. When deciding upon a school, we take tour of the school, meet with the administrators, teachers and possibly other students. Essentially like anything else in life, we are using our good judgment coupled with experience to ‘pick’ the right choice for our child. And once the choice is made, a well guided learning process begins, showing them how to observe, analyze, absorb, and respond to the new neighborhood and the school. Now the next step is to stay involved all along and watch for signs of stress or any kind of negative behaviors or attitudes that you can warn and protect your child from. Sense them ahead of time and help your child understand how to deal with them. Now switching to the new digital parenting, we need to do the exact same things.

          We need to stay aware of what’s available out there, we need to use it, find out what’s on it, how people use it, understand the ‘culture’ so to speak. Stay involved, look for signs of stress, addiction, or any misuse. As parents we need to bundle up our insight and expand it to the vast, limitless digital world, to make room for our children and guide them how to use it beneficially – something that we learn first hand. It sounds almost fake, but in the virtual world as well, we need to be alive, felt and heard just the same as in the physical world. We need to develop that richness of digital experience just the same as in the physical world. We need to understand the consequences of digital mistakes, and how to correct and learn from them. How we take out time for it without getting addicted to it ourselves, is an example we set for our children. The thought that we still have the responsibility to set an example for the next generation and to guide them vs they teaching us or conducting courses on technology for the ‘parent generation’ , is actually a comforting thought.

          For those parents who derive satisfaction in being able to stay ahead of the curve, Digital Parenting is now an inevitable reality.