The Covid-19 pandemic has rocked our planet like none before. It has literally turned the world upside down. It has thrown challenges of various types at different levels to each and everyone in varying magnitudes. I am going to present a simple yet significant challenge that my family and I have faced and I am pretty sure, a lot of you too have faced/facing the same.
Dealing with or managing school going kids at home is what I am talking about, particularly the 4-6 year olds. My 5 year old son scampered through his first year of schooling without even stepping inside his classroom once. Yes, he was and is 'studying' from home through online classes. I doubt he will ever get a chance to be a kindergarten kid. If making him sit at one place and attend Google Meet classroom sessions was(still is) a challenge, keeping him separated from smartphones posed the biggest challenge.
Rolling back a few months to pre-covid era AKA my son's pre-schooling era. Whenever his mischiefs and tantrums turned hostile, I tried mellowing him down by confiscating his favourite car toys and to my surprise(and everyone's at home), the method starting yeilding desired results! The cars returned to him, whenever the good boy in him showed up. That was a quite a relief. Phew! Thankfully he wasn't too much into smartphones back then. The tablet he had, shattered following a nasty drop on the floor and that was it. Replacement was ruled out then and there itself.
Now, back to covid era. The pandemic brought an abrupt end to my now 10 year-old daughter's 4th grade academic year with a couple of her exams cancelled and an automatic promotion to 5th grade. Attending school taken out of equation, online classes took precedence. 5th grade, CBSE syllabus and you all know what that means. I/we had no other option but spare her a smartphone. Of course, I had installed Google parental control on her phone. At the same time, got my son enrolled to lower kindergarten. Until this point, kids had limited access to smartphones. While his elder sister starting fiddling(studying) with her smartphone, the kid brother was not the one to be left alone. His mom's smartphone was targeted and he succeeded in his mission. Targeting my phone was mission impossible back then and it still is. Initially, we were all happy to see him 'calm and quiet' spending time with smartphone. His Modus Operandi was simple- download/install games, play and play till he gets bored, uninstall- repeat. With parental control activated in my daughter's phone, downloads obviously require my permission. Once I grant permission for a particular game to be downloaded, I have seen that the game requires no permission for repeat downloads. He wouldn't download a lot in my wife's phone due to lack of phone's storage space. After long hours of usage, once the phone battery is left with little or no juice, he would seamlessly switch phones, his mom's with his sister's and vice-versa. As days and weeks rolled over, I realised the ill-effects of him getting 'smart with the phone'. My little fella got so busy, that he almost forgot his favourite toy cars, his kitties, TV shows and everything, except one thing though, his tantrums. I hate saying this, but, with every passing day and week, his gadget addiction grew stronger. He was easily spending 6-8 hours a day with his new found buddy. Unbeknownst to him, he would gaze the phone screen from close quarters and his eyes would turn teary on occasions. Alarm bells started ringing loud and clear in my mind. Me and my wife were really worried would be an understatement. I had to act and act soon.
Then sometime in last December, my TeamBHP membership happened. Among plethora of things on the forum, "infraction system" is one among many others that really caught my senses. I thought long and hard, bingo! The infraction policy for my kid was framed. Every minor offence(read mischiefs, trantrums) of his attracted infraction points. Each point is worth a few minutes of phone usage time. This meant, a minor offence = BAN on mobile usage for few minutes. Major offences and infraction points are directly proportional. Make no mistake, he is a stubborn kid. Initial phases meant he would throw tantrums and wouldn't care much about staying away from his best buddy for a few minutes. This behaviour of his led to long term BANS in the scale of hours and even days. I had not only requested but also warned my wife and parents not to yeild to his 'wild tactics'. The "de-addiction" process for sure had taken wings. God! I tell you, it was equally amusing and painful watching him experience the "withdrawal" symptoms. He would protest, cry, fight with his sister and what not. End result- more infraction points and extended BAN. As days passed, with not much of his tactics working, he just got accustomed to the new system. So much so, that after every offence he committed, he would voluntarily come to me and confirm for himself the extent of his BAN!!
At present, he is allowed only two hours(approx.) of phone usage time per day, equally split between morning and evening sessions. He seems reasonably comfortable with this arrangement. There are days of complete BAN on phone usage as well as rare cheat days. All in all, my wife and I are really relieved with the turn of events. It wasn't easy, neither was it pleasant, a healthy final result nonetheless. I must add, his tantrums have definitely not stopped, but the bigger result has been achieved. Hail, Team BHP infraction system!!