How can I lead my children when I also struggle to have healthy boundaries with technology?
Do you wonder how you can possibly teach healthy relationships with technology when you also struggle to achieve this?
Children, especially my own, are adept at spotting hypocrisy. I am the first to acknowledge that I wrestle with the ideals I believe and penned as the Dads Against Devices™ pledge.
Obvious hypocrisy around screens and technology will undermine our efforts to teach our children. There’s no doubt.
That’s why lessons are best learned when our children observe us striving for real-world connection, creating healthy boundaries around technology, and being present.
To be certain, when the disparity between what we say and what we do is so contrasting, our children will likely follow what we do, not what we say — even when we teach them otherwise.
That said, we certainly do not need to be flawless or perfect before we start leading. And we absolutely need to give ourselves grace as we learn and grow as fathers.
But amid that grace, we must willingly demonstrate humility. It’s good for us, and for our children to hear, to acknowledge our own struggles as we strive to do things differently, grow personally, and lead our children to do the same.
Our striving should be for growth and progress — not perfection.
In all our efforts, we should be patient with ourselves, and those we love.
Our world is flooding with distractions and deceptions. Let’s lovingly teach and help one another to swim.
From my home,
Matthew
Founder, DADS™— Dads Against Devices™
Our pledge.
I will lead my family — by example and instruction — to be present, build relationships, strengthen the body, and nurture the attributes of love, communication, empathy, kindness, gratitude, humility, forgiveness, critical thinking, imagination, discipline, patience, integrity, resilience, courage, wisdom, and faith. To protect my family, I will not allow social media or unlimited, unmonitored, and unrestricted access to screens, gaming, or the internet in my home, nor will I provide personal smartphones to my children until they demonstrate the maturity to use them responsibly.