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Video Games & Parenting: Doesn’t Have To Be A Scary Thing

It can be argued that there has never been a more difficult time to be a parent. The way that technology has moved on in the last 20 years is breathtaking, and it has opened new opportunities and new horizons for people all around the globe.

While it is impressive to be able to browse the internet from your phone, to have shows and movies on demand through Hulu and Netflix, or to merely banking in your PJs, this new world does not come without risk. Specifically, that risk extends to children who are also finding themselves in an ever-changing digital world, but who don’t have the risk assessment necessary to know when something is good, and something is potentially dangerous.

Children learn their world by watching adult behavior. As we spend more and more time online or in the middle of digital anything, they want to do the same. They need necessary guidance and vital mentors from their parents to make the right decisions, the safe decisions, and the decisions that will let them explore in a way that you as parents can be comfortable with.

Here are four steps that you can take to ensure that your children playing Fortnite are chatting with friends safely and responsibly.

1.    Know who they are talking to – This is the most natural step to take, but it is one that often gets overlooked. There is a fine line between letting your child develop their sense of privacy and being too oblivious to whom they interact with daily. A good rule of thumb is to encourage your child to only communicate and talk with people they have met, never adding strangers or friends of their buddies.

2.    Encourage communication – Being a vital mentor means that your child is open to talking with you. All too often in the world today, we see parents and children that known nothing about each other’s life. You don’t have to be your teenager’s best friend, but you should certainly be able to talk to them enough to know what they are planning on doing on a Friday night.

3.    Keep personal information safe – Anyone can hide behind a screen name; this is both a good and a bad thing. The wrong side is focused on often, with people preying on others or bullying them with no recourse. The flip side though is that your child is also anonymous. Make sure they understand that this is important, never sharing photos, real names, addresses, etc.

4.    Set reasonable internet usage limits – Nothing is going to make a child act out more than being told what to do in a way that seems unfair to them. Workaround this by setting an internet limit, then offering incentives to increase it through insight into their world.

As with many topics concerning children, the key here is communication. Be open and honest about what you expect and be reasonable with what you want from them. The digital world CAN be a scary place, but it only doesn’t have to be that way.

Story by Steve Wright
Independent writer

What’s Your Opinion On Raising Children?

Everyone has an opinion about how to raise children, even those without them. The fact is, no two kids are the same so the experience of raising children will not be the exact same for parents.  Some kids will listen and some will not, some kids will be calm and still and others will not, and some kids will need more vital guidance than others.

The Bible is one of the best resources we have for how to raise children.  Not only does it provides vital guidance about parenting children, but it also provides guidance for being a parent.  The child-rearing experience will still be different for parents but the Bible helps with their responsibility to teach a good foundation for children to thrive in the world.

Here is a short list of some of the best verses for parents and children:

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it” comes from the Book of Proverbs.  There are a few different ways people view this verse from raising a child based on his or her talent to growing the child up in God’s Word for character and a relationship a with Him.  The latter view sees a relationship with God as more important than earthly talents.  However, the overall goal would still be to have a child with godly character who still thrives to be the best at his or her talent(s).

There are also verses about “children obey your parents” and “Fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” in the Books of Ephesians and Colossians.  At times, it’s a natural response to be upset with children when they do not listen or have intentionally damaged something that was important to you.  However, that is when parents must fall on the vital guidance of the Fruits of The Spirit to parent in a way that is comforting and safe for children to learn from their actions.  In the end, parents will see it was just stuff that was not more important than their relationship with their children.

There is no guarantee how children will turn out as they grow up, but parents still have a responsibility to teach them right from wrong.  If you do this based on varying opinions of others then your children can’t explained why their beliefs are what they are because they were never a solid foundation. They were just the opinions of others that can readily change based on how they are feeling that day.

In the Book of Deuteronomy, the Bible says “these words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.  And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Today, there are many ways to learn those words.  Reading, audio as well as Bible videos are available in many languages as well as at our fingertips because many of us have mobile phones.  So the next time you’re in the comfort of your home, traveling or relaxing before bedtime, read or listen to a few verses for knowledge of how to train up a child.