chand1986
2018-08-27 10:23:09
- #1
Sorry, but you a) misunderstood me and b) I think your conclusion is too short-sighted.
Then I should also be consistent and lock away all toys. After all, they’re supposed to develop boredom.
Not every toy. But having constant access to always multiple options for mindless entertainment (!) is not good.
To explain: Toy is not equal to toy. Sensory overload devices for audio or video are different than video games. And those are again something else than Duplo or Lego. The difference lies in the mental effort required and also in their nature.
Our son constantly incorporates and adapts the stories he hears and sees into his games. Additionally, songs are invented to accompany the hero of the hour. THAT is what I call creativity!
It is, and because he also does something else, this results. His quota for sensory overload is limited – whether by his own choice or by you/your family doesn’t matter at first.
My son asks me for a fairy tale on the CD player, simply because he wants it himself. Now that’s what I call intrinsic motivation.
And here one must be very careful.
Intrinsic motivation is a product of our upbringing, schooling, media consumption, and later the peer group. Put simply: the more often and longer I accustom a child to certain types of pastimes, the more likely they will want that themselves in the future.
Exactly for this reason, I criticize the "all-availability" of everything at any time: Whoever gets used to that becomes intrinsically motivated to someone who can derive more satisfaction from buying and owning than from activities.
My conclusion from this is simply that children do not have to be granted everything they want, especially not to the extent they would like. For me, console gaming time on the Super Nintendo was limited to 1 hour daily – at my own discretion. TV watching, too. Discman, as well. Limiting Discman was unnecessary, but I would have played TV and Nintendo all day if allowed.
That’s not acute at 3 years old; for me, it was elementary school time.