The Conversation
The Dangers of Distracted Parenting
In the July/August issue, Erika Christakis argued that we should worry less about children’s screen time—and more about our own.
We have three sons and three grandsons. All, including the 17-month-old, are screen zombies. We just experienced the power of the addiction/distraction during a two-week vacation with our two oldest grandchildren (13 and 11).
In the past year, they’ve crossed the four-and-a-half-mile bridge over the Chesapeake Bay to get to our home on Kent Island no fewer than seven times. Until we insisted on 22 hours a day of screen-free time, they had never noticed how spectacular or long the bridge is. Their delight and surprise at the existence of this massive structure finally brought home to them the point I had been trying to make: Their life had been reduced to a tiny rectangle, and they were missing the entire world.
The withdrawal
