cyber savvy mom
Managing family tech time during an uncertain summer Many of us will continue to spend lots of time at home during school break. How can families ensure it doesn’t turn into a round-the-clock binge of gaming and online videos?
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hear you out there, weary moms and dads. By now you are wrapping up several long months of trying to manage home schooling and remote learning arrangements, and summer is supposed to be your break. But in no ordinary time, will it be? Most of us have already loosened a lot of restrictions on time limits for device and
20 JUNE2020
BY JOAN GOODCHILD, CYBER SAVVY MOM electronics use after our kids’ typical outside activities and sports were cancelled this spring. There is only so much time busy parents, who have work requirements and homeschooling to manage, are able to dedicate to play, board games or getting outside for walks with kids. One small comfort we had to hold on to was that most kids were at least still busy for a portion of
the day with school. Now, as we move on from school distance learning programs and video classroom time into the end of school, that means finding new ways to fill time in a healthy way. Summer is likely to still hold a lot of uncertainties around how much freedom we have to travel and gather in groups. That means many of the traditional summer activities
kids know and rely on for fun may be off the table. In many homes, the tiring dance of getting work done and keeping kids occupied will continue. Laura Graves, professor of management in Clark University’s School of Management, researches work motivation and worklife integration. She advises families to start summer by identifying priorities for the
coming months in lieu of the usual summer schedule. “Often summer is a time when families want to offer kids development opportunities,” said Graves. “They want to send them to camps and other activities and those may not happen. Parents may need to revisit expectations and realize this summer may not be perfect, and they may not be able to
