The experiences of replacing online activities with reading, even if it was, only, for a little while, translated…
Since last year, I’d barely won the “fight for the remote”, and the T.V. fell silent, with that vanishing remote control for about six months; the computers were password protected, and, no matter how the child wants it, he can only, sigh. Without the interferences of the high-tech gadgets, he’d spent his spare time, swimming, in a sea of books, entering into middle school, his grades improved instantaneously.
Awhile I saw my son going to the libraries in his spare time, either that he’d swum in the Gigantic River, or that he was, having a “date” with Percy Jackson. I couldn’t help, but make fun of him for being a nerd. My child said, with passion, “In families were the hi-tech gadgets are banned, you either become a nerd, or uneducated.”
On New Year’s Eve, I can’t keep ignoring my husband’s begging and pleading, to watch the New Year’s celebrations, the remote that’s vanished all of a sudden, appeared, out of nowhere, I can only, watch silently, my son’s reactions, I saw how he’d become, inseparable, from “Percy Jackson”, and, tuned out everything from the television. I had that radiant smile of victory on my face, it’s a wonder, that it’s said, that all the habits were made from inadaptedness, just because of a small “war” in our family, my son was able to quit his addiction to television cold turkey.
But, things didn’t last, my husband’s computer without the internet connection stopped working, and I can only, put up the one with the internet and told him the password, and, my husband who spoiled our son, “tattled” it to my son. And my son started back on his old ways, when I was out in the morning, exercising, he’d snuck on the computer to play. I’d changed the passwords, a few days later, I’d asked him casually, “You’d read so many books now, there’s a lot you can share with your classmates, it’s, way better than T.V., isn’t it?”, he’d said, self-righteously, “Television and computers are way too hard to carry, my classmates are using their cells to watch videos and play the games, mom, I’d improved on my grades, when, will you get me a cell phone?”, naturally, I’d told him straight, “Wait ‘til you can afford to buy the phone, and pay for your own phone bills!”
So, this, didn’t last, as there are, so many temptations from the outside world, and, the child here did, get the joys of reading provided to him, but, it was, too short-lived, because before you know it, he’d become, intrigued with the high-tech gadgets and the endless number of cool apps, games, etc., etc., etc.