Andy Black
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Exactly. I do the school runs in the morning. It’s lame dad jokes and favourite sayings all the way. I get to be super genius font of all wisdom in front of my kids.We've been playing tons of board games with the kids!
But yeah, it's a constant battle against technology and peer pressure.
Driving to work this morning at 5:30am
A car stopped in front of me had 2 little kids in the backseat.
One was watching a movie on the screen hooked to the headrest in front of her, the other was playing a game on her phone.
Both were around 8 years old.
I have kids, I get it. It's easy sometimes to park em in front of the TV or whatever and have technology do the parenting for a minute.
But my gosh, at 5:30 in the morning? They can't look out the window? They can't talk to each other? They can't have dad in the front seat spouting off random words of wisdom and lame dad jokes?
Plus we play games.
One of their favourites is Maths games. They choose whether it’s additions, subtraction, multiplication, or division. I pick a question (knowing their level). They love it. It’s not “Maths” to them, it’s a puzzle. “If you have 5 velociraptors and a sheep in a room then how many legs are there?” They know the answer is 10.
They also love the “What’s dangerous?” games. (What’s dangerous in the house? What’s dangerous in the sky? What’s dangerous in winter?). They come up with crazy answers. But they also know the stairs is the most dangerous place in the house.
They learn to take turns, and not shout out answers when it’s not their turn. I see them helping each other in the back of the car, whispering how to work it out, but not whispering the answer.
We get in the car and they’re pleading to play games.
Some of the best conversations are in cars.
I get to do this every morning. What a privilege.
Sheeit, it never occurred to me to put a tablet in each of their hands. I don’t know whether I’m more appalled or more saddened.
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