Remember when you used to stretch the pig-tailed cord of the family telephone as far as it would go, away from listening ears and family chatter, and your parents seemed only to worry about how long you were on there? Tying up the one phone line for the entire evening was frowned upon, but no one worried about you chatting with strangers. Maybe your parents were more concerned with your tv-viewing or Nintendo habits. Maybe you spent too much time in your room, slept too much, or listened to your music too loud.
Whatever the vice, your parents worried/nagged/made rules, because that's their job.
Not much has changed, now that we're the parents.
Mothering in this generation is a long and beautiful work of stewardship, just as it has been for every generation of mothers before us. We have so many new things to worry over and so much angst about technology and screen time and the dangers that lurk in the world, and rightly so. But every mother since Eve has raised children in a fallen world. We are not in totally new territory.
Dealing with technology raises a lot insecurities for parents, and kindredmom.com is hosting an essay today on the two areas I'm trying to keep in perspective in regards to screens: time and content.
You can read the full essay at Kindred Mom by clicking here.