My daughter was studying Qin Shi Huangdi (who built the Great Wall of China and ruled China totally) on the day the nets returned. This had me thinking about our thorny discipline problem when it comes to spending time online.
Discipline's never an easy issue in this house, since I don't like any form of spanking and neither of us wants kids who say "how high?" when we say Jump. But it's much, much harder when the adults are the ones with the discipline problem. Especially with adults who never want to be told what to do.
In matters where we've gradually grown to agree on the necessity of action, it's very easy. Getting the laundry done? Awesome-we had a cat who peed on anything cloth that ended up on the floor and we've never wanted laundry piles since. Internet's the same way. We stay up late or ignore the kids in order to mess around on the web, and we have bored, unhappy kids who wake us up when we want to sleep. For me, this direct consequence is enough to make me want to change. And yet, there's some motivation missing in me.
Maybe my brain thinks it's harmless? It can't be that bad?
Here's the difference between me writing an update offline and online.
Offline-I'm seated comfortably on the kitchen floor whilst my spouse makes lunch. The kids come up to say hi, tell me a joke, ask me for a glass of milk, and I smile, answer them or direct them to the cups. I write, making note of where I want to put a picture or a link. Then go into my photos, edit and export the correct ones. Finally, I go online briefly to copy and paste my text, upload photos, and quickly find the pages I'm linking. The text editor is blank and boring to look at, and anyone who wants to talk to me can see that I'm working.
Writing online, I've got the browser open with all it's worlds of possibility. I see all the bookmarks in my toolbar and think of all the blogs I haven't read yet today. My home page is Livejournal, with many of my friends saying things ranging from amusing to life shattering. The icon for instant messaging is right next to Firefox in my taskbar, and it's almost unconscious habit to click both at the same time. I'm asking myself what people are up to, looking at the names of my friends on my buddy list and wanting to say hi to them, feeling out of touch on the news, thinking about something amusing and diverting...
And don't even try to talk to me- The Cave Troll is out! I'm supposed to be getting stuff done and the part of my brain that holds conversations can't handle all the stuff on my screen AND civil verbal communication.
And both Adam and I suffer from the Entitled Teenager who doesn't want to go to bed, who doesn't want to do chores or do any of the things we're supposed to do.
So, my solution for now, to keep the Cave Troll and the Entitled Teenager at bay, limit our family's time online. It's simple to jot down the things we want to look up and check them out all at once. It's better to write blog entries in TextEdit or on paper, so they can be revised a bit before they're posted. And once we've caught those things up, there'll be plenty of time for chatting and setting up video conversations with our friends.
Hawthorne thinks we should use the internet a "bundle of times."
Persephone says "two hours."
My eldest, and deepest entrenched, says : "All Day!"
I just want a happy family And a connection with the outside world.
(bird results later, If you want to give it a try, the comments won't be closing for a few more hours)
-Simbelmyne
