Every day we are at war with the forces around us that are after influencing our families. Sometimes we just need to step back and call it good enough.
This last week, our children got a play Minecraft for a couple hours. We were at a friend’s house, and the kids all had a “LAN party” while us adults got to just hang out and chat. It was a fun time had by all.
In our house, games and screen time are not something we normally allow much of. They get to watch movies, but not many. Most of the time it’s a movie (or half a movie) with dinner. Recently it’s been a bit more, because we have been traveling so much for VA appointments. It’s a risk, and not one we have been happy with.
We both feel strongly that games and screen time can have a strong addiction. And we have seen this addiction in the lives of others we know. This week only reinforced that belief with the talk constantly about Minecraft the first half of the week.
But sometimes you cave. You let go of the tight reins and see where things go.
Plus, if we never let our kids face those risks, what will happen when we are not there?
Thankfully, the values we have instilled seem to hold. After a few days, they got burnt out on that singular focus. By Wednesday the focus shifted 180 degrees towards playing with Legos and building whatever random thing their minds could invent.
The same is true for most things in life. We need to set standards and values. Teach those values and then let our kids learn for themselves what they should and should not do. Step back and let life reinforce our lesson.
We set our family up for failure if we do nothing and don’t teach. We also set our family up for failure if we never let go and let them test the boundaries we set. Failure by never letting them learn and see what happens. If we spend all day shielding our kids from everything, we only set them up for failure. And ourselves up for a ton of stress.